


Tuned In

by ClassyWillow



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Baby Fic, F/M, Fluff, Human Disaster Mike Lawson, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-09-28 02:12:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10065752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClassyWillow/pseuds/ClassyWillow
Summary: One night at Spring Training was all it took to end Ginny Baker's season and Mike Lawson to feel like a proper asshole for it.





	1. It's Done

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this over on Tumblr under the username bawsonactuallygivesmelife.

“What the hell is your problem _Captain_!” she spat, she had grabbed him by the arm, man handled him in all sense of the term to the secluded hallway just off the usual tunnel to the clubhouse. Their team mates had reverted their eyes to the ground walking ahead of them, this show-down had been waiting to happen four a good for months.

“What do you think your doing?” he bellowed back, he put space between them snatching his arm back. Looking at her, she was enraged, angry, all tantrums ready to happen.

“What the hell do _I_ think _I’m_ doing?!” she yelled back at him closing the space that he had put between them, mere inches from his face. She was fucking angry, but god all Mike could think about was her incredibly warm temperature radiating straight into his chest and down his abdomen and taking homage in his lower stomach.

“Yeah, _you_!” He barked back, shaking himself out of his thoughts.

She shoved him, not hard enough to bruise but enough for him to take a step back into the wall.

“Why did you send me off?” She spat harshly, looking at her, beads of sweat were still rolling down the side of her face, moving slowly down her neck. He couldn’t help where his mind had wondered, god her body had tasted too good.

He took a deep breath in, willing himself to get his shit together. “Come here” he murmured as he took her by the bicep and dragged her a few metres down to a nearby office. Throwing her inside.

“Cool off.” He said through gritted teeth, taking off his cap, running his hand through his beard.

“I’m not just going to cool off, you know how much this meant to me.” Although she was telling him she wasn’t going to cool off, her voice had lowered and she had gone from angry to sad in about 10 seconds and that hurt.

“Don’t you think I know that?” he asked incredulously.

“Do you?” she asked him.

“Look at me” and she was angry again. He couldn’t not look at her, she had her hands on her hips and Mike didn’t know what to say.

“I can’t.” Was all he said as he started to make his way back to the door, she quickly moved into his path, hand raised to his chest.

“I said look at me.” This time she was gentler.

“Look. I need you to treat me like any other player when we’re out there.”

All he could do was look at her, was she stupid? They had been down this route too many times in the past four months.

“Ginny, your not any other player out there anymore.” He murmured, and this is how they got into this predicament in the first place he thought to himself. Hell, should have treated her like any other Rookie when she had started, he should never had let himself have just ‘one taste’ in the first place he thought to himself.

He ran a frustrated hand over his face. He stepped away from her.

She took a deep breath in, quickly worrying her bottom lip before mumbling “I’m not going to break Mike, let me have this. I might never get this chance again after its born.”

Hell, she was right. He was being selfish, he knew it and she knew it.

She searched for his eyes across the room.

“Look it’s done, you sent me off. I’ll meet you in there.”

He felt ashamed as she opened the door, watching as she exited the office. Although she had cooled off, the icy chill that came from her last sentence burned through him.

_____________

He was soaking when she made her way into the therapy room. The tension from his… their personal life falling into the game hadn’t been the plan and he knew that.

“Can we have a moment?” Mike asked the trainer, eyes not leaving Ginny’s frame.

An apologetic smile forming on her lips as she looked at the trainer, holding the door open for him.

Mike noticed instantly something was off about her, she looked pale and her eyes were watery, she was clamping her hand onto the side of her neck - he had noticed it as a nervous habit lately.

“You okay?” He asked leaning forward, it was too late to be shy but he did want to keep some of his dignity in tact.

“Nausea is killing me.” She half laughed, half groaned out as she brought her hand down to upper stomach.

“Ahh, we should get that checked out Baker.” Worry bleeding into his tone.

“I guess so.” She remarked as she brought the chair over to the tub, sitting down cross legged atop of it.

“Yoga?” He asked laughing as she closed her eyes and straightened her back.

“It’s really help’s, don’t laugh!” She giggled as she continued to close her eyes, brow furrowed.

“Whatever you say” He laughed again, leaning back and groaning at the splash of the water coming up higher on his chest and back.

“Y _ou_ okay?” She asked peeking through a hooded eye down at him, he noticed she struggled to keep her eyes at his face and not dip lower.

“Knees’ are playing up.” He groaned again, straightening out.

“Well it was a rough game” She smirked.

It was easy between them sometimes, when personal them didn’t get involved with baseball-teammate them. They were easy, fluid, she understood him better then he realised. She was there for every ice bath, even before this thing between them progressed.

“Still mad?” He asked, peeking at her, she hadn’t moved from her positioning.

“Kinda, I mean - I get it. But I’m still a ball player Mike.” She said hesitantly.

And she really did get it, that’s the hardest part. She understood why he was protective of her. They had this connection between them that wasn’t just intimate anymore, it was family. He was her family. She was holding his family in her and it made sense.

“I know.” He grimaced.

“But your right, we need to say something.” She smiled

He heard her get up off of the chair, bringing her hands to the bottom of her baggy shirt. It hadn’t gone unnoticed by him that she had started wearing a size bigger in t-shirts and tank tops, looser fitting and concealing.

She slowly brought the shirt up, revealing the top of her leggings, jutting hip bones and a small bump as she turned to her side. Yes there was definitely a defining bump there. Bringing her other hand over her smooth skin, she caressed the bulge. Smiling down at him.

He couldn’t contain the megawatt smile that broke across his face.

“Are you sure you didn’t eat too many burrito’s for lunch today?” He asked peering at her, the grin not leaving his face.

“Shut up.” She laughed looking down at her stomach, caressing the bulge.  

“Baker, that’s a belly! come ‘ere!”

The water sloshed around him as he reached his arm out to touch her, leaning over the tub the water coming over the edge.

“No way, not with your freezing hands!” She exclaimed moving away from his grasp, letting her shirt fall again.

“Well that’s not fair! Your not allowed show me and not let me touch!” He smiled leaning back into the tub, grimacing at the chill of the water.

“You can touch it when your hands are warm!” She laughed as she sat back down on the chair, legs coming up to be crossed.

“There’s some crackers over there” He said pointing over at his gym bag, he knew that it calmed her nausea down when it flared up.

“You hold out!” She smiled as she got back up and made her way over to the bag.

Initially finding out that a one time thing had landed them in deeper shit than any of them were prepared for was hard. In a professional relationship where he needed to be able to read her better then anyone. In a sport where - he needed to be able to talk to her, understand her. Saying they struggled initially was an understatement.

He couldn’t work it out at first, he had thought maybe that night had shook her, hell it had shook him, he couldn’t even look at her, keeping those memories to himself he had tried and tried not to connect professional teammates to that one memorable night. He had jogged to the mound to get it out of her system, let her know that she was a ballplayer and she shouldn’t let a night with the likes of himself get to her because that’s what she wanted, she hadn’t wanted to talk about it - Midway through the third inning she had thrown him through a loop.

“I’m pregnant, its yours.” and that was that through a half glove covered face. “I need you to get me out of here, I’m about the throw up.” She had murmured through her glove and that was-that.

They went two weeks without talking. She had rejected his calls, didn’t talk to him at PETCO, had made a conscious effort to avoid him on the team bus, avoid him in all aspects except professionally until she was pitching shit and he took it into his own hands. He once again raced to the mound, catching her off guard.

“You don’t want to talk Baker, I’ll talk. I’m here, I’m here for whatever you want to do. You want to keep it, you don’t, whatever you do, I’m still going to be here Ginny.” He had exhaled in one breath, everything he had wanted to tell her spilling out in one simple sentence.

She had stared at him for what felt like years and Mike could feel his entire body become ridged, he didn’t care if he was over stepping. It was too late to pretend that their personal relationship hadn’t spilt into their professional one.

“I’m keeping it.” Was all she had said and he couldn’t have helped the way his eyes lightened at her admission. She rolled her eyes, “Go. I’m fine.” and they’d won that day. That was that, she was keeping it and they were having a baby.

Now she was munching on the crackers, back to her position, cross legged on the chair, licking the salt off of the biscuit.

“Are you going to get out anytime soon?” She asked, munching along.

“Five more and then we’re outta here Baker.” He smiled over at her.

______

Ginny had quickly moved in with Mike after that, they had agreed that it was initially only until she found her own apartment but four months later and she was still comfortably living with him. Most of her crap had moved from the Omni to Mikes and it felt like home for them.

They’d fallen into a comfortable roommate and teammate relationship after that. Personally they were okay, they fell from teammates easily into a dynamic that matched them personally.

____

“Mike, I’m serious, if we live together there needs to be boundaries.”

“Boundaries… Like what?”

“As in, we’re just roommates who are having a child together.” And Mike would be lying if that hurt. Mike would be lying if her saying that didn’t kill him inside, he wanted more and it was hard to conceal that.

“And what about the team? Are we telling them?” Gulping, trying to get away from the terrible lump in his throat that had formed.

“We tell them when the time is right.” She had said, looking down at her hands. She hadn’t really thought about the team and how it might effect them.

“It’s your call.” Because really it was her call, when she was ready, he was ready.

He’d fallen into deep thought, thinking how this would effect them as a team. How would management take it, how would the team take it. What worried him the most - the press, crucifying her in the press.

“Do you think we’ll be able to do this?” She had asked, doubt evident in her voice. She couldn’t look at him when she asked.

“Baker, your capable of anything.” He answered honestly without hesitation.

“But can _we_ do this?” She had asked, tilting her head to him making him meet her eyes, as she tugged at his chin to move in the direction of her.

“Of course we can.” He had smiled.

He had been lying through his teeth that day, back then he wasn’t sure if he could hack it. The thought that he had gotten the first woman major league baseball player pregnant and possibly have ruined her career killed him inside, he felt worse then when he’d let her stay on and she’d injured her arm in her rookie season. He wasn’t sure if he could actually do this.

Sure he’d thought about kids, he was married after all but he had come to the conclusion that maybe it just wasn’t going to happen for him after the divorce.

__________

 

They had made their way back to the house, Ginny had settled into her comfortable sweat pants and a loose tank and that’s when he know’s she’s looking for comfort more than anything tonight.

“Still not feeling okay?” He asked, coming to sit next to her on the couch.

“I’m anxious about telling everyone tomorrow.” She said threading her hands through her hair as she began parting her wet locks into three parts.

“I’ll be right there Gin, your not doing this alone.” Placing his hand on her thigh, trailing small circles into her knee.

“I know, it’s just - I don’t know, weird. Let’s go through it, what questions do you think they’ll ask?” She smiled, flexing her arms as she began braiding one long braid down the back of her head.

“They’ll ask us if we’re in a relationship probably.” He smiled, looking away from her, he could feel the crimson coming up his throat.

“I say we’re not and it’s none of their business?” She asked.

He laughed at that, she hated having to explain herself to anyone. Her personal choices were her own.

“You’ll tell Amelia and get her to deal with it?” He asked, that had to be the easiest route for them.

“And you’ll tell Al and the team or are we doing that together?” She answered a question with a question.

“Al already know’s.” It was his turn to come up honestly.

“Al already know’s? Since when?”

Sensing her serious tone, “Since that day you vomited in the bullpen and I followed you out. Remember I was late coming home… I was with him.”

“Oh god, what did he say?” She asked, he could see all the questions filtering through her eyes.

“He called me an idiot, stupid and then he congratulated us.” He laughed, “I needed him to go easy on you.”

“And that’s why he let you take me out of the game today!” Putting two and two together, now understanding why Al hadn’t been on her side.

“ _You’re pitching limit is coming up Ginny, time to walk_ he had said to me _front office need you to save your arm_! Sneaky! Knowing full well that I wouldn’t be able to finish off the season!” She exclaimed, finally understanding.

“I should have told you Al knew but you had put me under strict order not to tell anyone”

She could hear the guilt laced in his admission.

“Yeah! You should have told me he knew, I was worried he thought I was always hung over!” She laughed, tying off her hair.

She shifted her position, resting her feet on his lap. Her shirt shifted up her abdomen and Mike caught a sliver of skin. Reaching forward, one hand resting on her foot and he slowly and hesitantly trailed his hand up her thigh towards her belly.

Catching his eyes with her own encouraging ones, she brought her hand to her stomach, bringing the shirt higher. “You can touch Mike.”

Mike could feel the nerves building in his stomach, his hands were shaky as he made his way up to her abdomen. Her skin was soft as he made contact with her exactly how it had been all those months ago. Caressing and lightly scraping his hands against her bare skin. The smile spread across his face as he brought his meaty palm into contact, laying it flat.

Ginny brought her hand over his caressing his fingers gently.

“How does it feel?” He asked, Mike could feel his mouth going dry at the contact, this was the most incredible thing he had ever felt. Nothing in his entire life could compare to feeling the bump that was Ginny’s stomach, the life that they’d created together.

His chest almost combusted, he felt overwhelmed with love and adoration for her.

“Itchy” She laughed as she moved his hand across her stomach. That made him chuckle.

“Itchy?” He asked

“Itchy. It get’s so weirdly itchy!” She laughed.

He began caressing her stomach, moving his finger tips across her from the top of her sternum to her lower stomach, going in swirling patterns and alternating long strokes.

She watched him intently as he looked at her stomach, dragging his finger tips across her flesh. Dipping lower on her stomach to the drawstrings of her sweats.

“Does this feel okay?” He asked hesitantly.

“It feels really nice.” She said as she leaned back against the headrest, closing her eyes.

She brought both hands under head as she embraced his touch, he continued touching her, running his other hand down her calf. She moaned softly at the touch as he went down to her foot, firmly massaging it as he ran his other hand over her stomach.

She let out a second really deep moan from the back of her throat.

“Sorry!” She laughed

“Want me to keep going?” He asked, as he brought his hand away from her stomach down to her feet, taking her foot with both hands and massaging away. She let out another breathy moan at the motion.

“God that feels nice.” Her voice had gone horse.

“Yeah?” He asked

He really shouldn’t have found this erotic, but his dick had other thoughts. They hadn’t been this intimate in months, they’d fallen so easily into roommate territory that he assumed this was completely off the table for them.

He’d be lying if he didn’t admit that seeing her wrapped in a towel a few times throughout the past four months didn’t get him going. He’d be lying that having her in the room when he was having an ice bath when she was doing stretches and flexing her long legs didn’t turn him on, everything about her turned him on. But this, this was something different.

This was completely different, he felt the shiver fall into his spine and work its way deep in his stomach.

“it feels amazing.” She grunted out as he started working her foot deeper.

“Why didn’t you tell me your feet were sore?” He asked, laughing at how loose she had become with his touch.

“I didn’t know this was - on the plate” She laughed another grunt falling into that sentence. “God that feels so good Mike.”

“Okay, you need to stop before I embarrass myself.”

She began pulling her feet away from his grasp but he held on.

“Baker, it’s me. You don’t have to be embarrassed with me.” He said honestly.

She looked over at him, the seriousness in his tone told her a different story, something unsaid and unspoken between them. She could read him like a book.

“Somethings on your mind, whats going on?” She asked leaning back into his touch, running her own hands down her stomach.

“I just like this, thats all.”

He realised what he said after it was already said, he brought his own bottom lip between his teeth realising that he was toying with the line between them. An admission that he didn’t need to put on her. His own selfish thoughts and feelings needed to take a back burner.  

After a moment of silence -

“I like this too.” She smiled over at him. “I mean - this is what roommates who are having a baby together do right?” She smirked at him.

______

 

Amelia was at their house on the ass crack of dawn. The screech that she uttered is what got Mike out of bed. He jolted away, looking across at the alarm clock - it was 7AM, they didn’t need to be at PETCO until 11AM. Groaning he lifted his legs out of the bed and then he heard it.

_“What do you mean your pregnant?!”_ Amelia uttered, disdain evident in her tone.

_“Exactly what it means. I’m pregnant.”_ Mike overheard Ginny say in a really even tone.

_“Who is the father?!_ ” Amelia asked, and Mike couldn’t help the surprise that she wouldn’t have guessed it was him… give her a moment.

_“Oh god please don’t tell me it’s Mike Lawson’s.”_ There it was.

_“It’s Mike Lawson’s.”_

“ _Oh god this is going to be a PR nightmare.”_ She bellowed.

Mike contemplating not leaving the room but he also knew that Ginny needed the support, they needed to be a united front.

_“His asleep, but you really need to tone it down. It is what it is Amelia - I need you to release it to the press somehow.”_

Ginny was all business with Amelia now, he had noticed when Amelia had returned post injury Ginny had kept her distance from her on a personal level, an understanding that there were boundaries that they weren’t allowed to cross anymore.

Mike made his way down the hall, pulling on a t-shirt.

“There he is.” Ginny smiled up the stairs at him, he could tell by her eyes that she was done.

“Morning.” Mike commented, coming down the stairs and into the kitchen, straight for the coffee pot.

Amelia didn’t even acknowledge him, she began typing on her mobile phone.

“Okay, how long have you guys been together?” Amelia asked looking between them, levelling out from her earlier tantrum.

“We’re not together.” Mike answered, looking straight at Ginny, eyes locking.

“So what, you had a one night stand and fell pregnant?” Amelia asked suspicion in her voice, not believing a single word.

“Exactly.” edginess dripping from Ginny’s voice.

“And how far along are you?” Amelia asked

“Four and a half months?” Ginny turned to Mike looking for confirmation.

“She’s 22 weeks, 23 on Wednesday.” He smiled over at her, he was going to be a proud new dad, of course he knew how far along she was.

Amelia sighed at them. “Do you know how hard this is going to be to spin?” She asked.

“And that’s why I pay you good money.” Ginny smirked at her. “Spin away, make it look good.”  

“What are you going to do about baseball or an apartment?” Amelia asked, here the hard questions come.

“I’m not sure yet, at the moment I think I’m going to be here for the birth and the first few months.” Ginny answered honestly. She had dodged the Baseball question because honestly it was a sore subject. They hadn’t actually talked about after the baby does come, if she and their baby would stay here or move into her own place, how long it would take for her to get back to the Major Leagues.

“That stuff doesn’t matter - the press don’t need to know that.” Mike said protectively coming closer to Ginny sensing that she was nervous, the way she started to bring her bottom lip into her mouth, chewing away.

“Yeah, but they are going to ask Ginny.”

After a moment of silence Mike answered in place. She was now staring out the window deep in thought. He could tell she was becoming agitated now.

“We get that, but the statement wont need to include that. Just announce it and we’ll deal with it later.”

“Okay, time to go, we’ve gotta get to PETCO.” Ginny commented, coming around Amelia and attempting to usher her out of the house.

“But what about your endorsement deals?”

“What? They wont want me because I’m doing the most natural thing on the planet?” Ginny asked annoyed.

“Okay, I’m going. I’ll call you when it’s done.” Amelia knew when to pick her battles and by Ginny’s tone - this was not a battle that could be won.

“Also, don’t announce it until tonight.” Ginny yelled as she closed the front door behind her.

_______

 

“Baker, hurry up!” Mike yelled up the stair case, Ginny had been in the shower for almost 25 minutes, although not unusual she usually didn’t do that before they had to go to PETCO.

Amelia had left almost an hour ago and they hadn’t talk about it.

Five minutes later and the shower hadn’t turned off, he started making his way up the stair case. Knocking on the door to the bathroom he yelled “We’re going to be late.”

“‘m coming.” but her voice was broken and Mike picked up on it instantly.

“You okay?” Stupid question.

“Yep.” She yelled back, again brokenly.

“Baker, I’m coming in.”

“No no, - No you know what okay.” He heard her say.

He opened the door, his eyes went straight to the shower stall and found her clumped on the floor, knees brought to her chest, or as close as they could.

He kept his eyes above board as he opened the shower stall door.

“What’s going on?” He asked, crouching down to her level.

Her chin was resting on her knees, eyes reverted to the ground. She had been crying.

He reached out, bringing her chin up so she would look at him.

“What’s going on?” He asked again, “Talk to me Gin”

“No judgement?”

She looked up into his eyes, he started to move closer into the shower. He started to get wet by the shower spray, fully clothed he felt stupid, he stood up kicking off his shoes and pulling his shirt over his head, she continued watching him.

“No judgement.” He said, coming into the shower stall with her, crouching down in front of her.

Ginny took a deep breathe, “Did we make a mistake? I need a long winded speech.”

He looked at her, “What’s brought this on?” He asked. He watched her demure change, the guilt in her eyes as she turned away from him, he reached out to her cupping her jaw averting her eyes back at him.

“I don’t think we made a mistake, I don’t think you made a mistake.” He said, voice low.

“I’m not going to be a ballplayer anymore.” She said, her eyes beginning to water.

“Baker, your a total gamer. You will come back from this, we’re going to have a baby and you’ll be a  ballplayer, just with a really cute kid and a really hot baby daddy.” He didn’t miss a beat, he continued looking at her, his hands resting on her knees.

“I worked so hard to get here.” She said, a few stray tears leaving her eyes, laughing at her stupidity.  

“I know you did.” Was all he could say, the hurt that she was feeling sat heavily on him. She was giving up a lot, what was he doing, he was having a baby. He was going to get to finish off this season and the next and she’ll be killing herself to get back.

“Baker, your going to work just as hard to get back. You’ve got me as a built in captain, I mean living with the _captain_ \- what more could you want? Plus one of us has to be MLB player when this kid starts playing baseball.” trying for a smile. “Come on Baker, you ripped me a new one yesterday because I sent you off - good luck to anyone who stands in your way being on that mound.” 

“You think they’ll be a catcher or a pitcher?” She smiled a watery smile.

“Baker, everyone knows the catcher makes the calls, catcher definitely.” He laughed.

“I’m the one on the mound, I make the calls.”

He took a moment, taking her in. They were sitting on the shower stall floor smiling stupidly at one another. “Take off your pants Mike.” She said seriously, looking down his body. He still had his shorts on but they were soaking wet and she was naked.

“I’m naked and fat and your still dressed, this is hardly fair.” She laughed.

“You’ll have to do better than that to get me naked again Baker.” He winked as he got up, offering his hands to help her up.

“Plus this is for all the time’s you get a sneaky look when I’m in the ice bath.”

“I don’t look!” She laughed, attempting to reach for the towel modestly.

“Well I’m looking and your beautiful Gin.” He said, raking his eyes down her body comfortably. She was beautiful, although he could only see the side of her body, her breast stood tall, nipple perked. Her stomach protruding out and her long lean legs, she shyly looked over at him, not at all embarrassed.

“Well I’d hope you think so considering you made me look like this!” She laughed, bringing the towel around her body.

“Okay, lets do this.” She said stepping out of the stall, “Thank you.” She murmured as she grabbed his forearm as he too reached for a towel to dry off with.


	2. Terms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You ready for this?” Mike asked Ginny as he popped the trunk of the car to get their bags out.
> 
> “As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said as she breathed in, but he could see the worry not leaving her forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank the shit out of @wintrefall she literally made my jumble something make sense. She is literally the queen!

The entire car trip to the park was heavy with nerves. Mike gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned white and he couldn’t feel his hands. An unfamiliar nervous feeling had settled low in his stomach, the same panicked feeling he had his first major league game.

He could tell Ginny was nervous. She always had something to say but she suddenly had gone quiet. Mike continued to look over at her, concern furrowed his brow. Had he said or done enough to calm her. This was a big day for him, but an even bigger day for her. It was a big day for them.

Blip was in the car park waiting for them to arrive, leaning against his car with his mobile phone against his ear. Mike could tell from the big smile plastered on his face that he was either on the phone with Evelyn or one of his kids. If Mike was honest with himself, he couldn’t wait for that part - the happy home life. He couldn’t imagine anyone but Ginny on the other end of the line. Don’t be stupid, he thought to himself, shaking the thought out of his head as he exited the car.

“You ready for this?” Mike asked Ginny as he popped the trunk of the car to get their bags out.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said as she breathed in, but he could see the worry not leaving her forehead.

As they made their way over to Blip, Mike leaned in close to her. “We’ve got this,” he whispered.

“Hey, what’s the big announcement Gin? Amelia is freakin’ in the press room,” Blip asked, not taking the telephone off his ear, looking between them. He had gotten used to how they communicated, not surprised by the way Ginny and Mike turned into one another.

“I’m - I guess?” She turned to Mike for confirmation. At his encouraging nod, she continued. “I’m announcing this’ll be my last game of the season.”

Mike continued looking at her, watching closely. He wasn’t sure how she had told Amelia but Amelia wasn’t her teammate or her friend like Blip .

Blip looked at her and then met Mike’s gaze, confused. “What?”

“I guess I’m -” Ginny chuckled. “Sorry, I’m pregnant,” Ginny said so quietly that Mike had to strain to hear her properly.

“Wait, what! Babe, I have to call you back.” Blip hung up his phone. Ginny could hear the echo of Evelyn Sanders shouting ‘don’t you dare hang up on me Blip.’

“You’re pregnant?” Blip asked, clearly dumbfounded.

Ginny just nodded. Mike watched her wrestle with whatever was going on inside her head. This was the first person she was telling outside of him and Amelia.

“Congratulations!” Blip blurted out, smiling with apprehension but opening his arms to hug her.

“Thanks,” Ginny smiled uncomfortably as she embraced him.

Mike stood by, unsure if it was his place to say anything. They hadn’t discussed whether they would tell people he was the father. They hadn’t formulated a plan on how they were going to properly tell Blip the truth about them.

“Look Gin, don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought you and the tech guy broke up?” Blip prompted carefully, looking over at Mike bewilderedly.

“Uh, yeah, we did. He isn’t the father.” She turned to Mike, pulling away from Blip.

Blip looked at Mike puzzled. Mike smiled sheepishly back as realization spread like wildfire across Blip Sanders’ face.

‘You got it right buddy. I’m the idiot that got the first female Major League Baseball Player pregnant,’ Mike thought.

“Shit,” Blip murmured, his eyes moving between Ginny and Mike and then down to her stomach. Ginny had unconsciously moved her hand over stomach protectively.

“Yeah,” Mike said calmly, looking back at Ginny and trailing his eyes down her body to where her hand rested on her stomach.

Ginny just looked between them, trying to figure out what they were really thinking and what to say in response. They stayed in an uncomfortable silence for a long thirty seconds before Ginny finally spoke.

“Well, that’s that,” she huffed, breaking the air.

Blip gave her a tight smile, bringing an arm around her. “I’m really happy for you Gin.”

As he brought her into another bear hug, his eyes shifted to Mike. If looks could kill, Mike would have easily been six feet under. Mike averted his eyes away, looking at his shoes. This was going to be a long day.

____

“Well that went better than I expected,” she said, letting a breath out that she didn’t realized she was holding in.

“Maybe for you. I’m going to be crucified by the twenty guys in there once they find out.” He raised his eyebrows at her playfully.

“Probably, but you can handle it, Old Man.” She affectionately brought her hand up to tug at his beard.

They slowly made their way into the clubhouse, parting ways just outside of her change room.

“Meet you in the dugout?” He smiled down at her while she fumbled around her bag for her keys.

“Yep,” she said, noticing he was lingering a little longer than usual. “What?” she asked, looking up at him with a coy smile plastered on her face. She knew why he was lingering.

With a shit eating grin plastered across his face, his gaze roamed lower down her body, finally finding her stomach.

“Come on, do it,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

He didn’t need to be told twice. He glanced left and right to make sure no one would see what he was about to do. She laughed at his secretiveness. He waggled his eyebrows at her and brought his hand up to her stomach.

She was wearing a loose fitting black t-shirt which concealed her round stomach, but now that he knew there was something there for him to see and touch, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to stop. She laughed at the gentleness, laying her palm over his.

“I can feel it kicking or punching me right here,” she chuckled as she moved his palm to the side of her stomach.

“Can you feel that?” she asked as his eyes grew wide with excitement.

“I can feel a really light tapping,” he said, looking down at her stomach with admiration and pushing a little harder in.

“Holy shit Gin.” He grinned as he felt a harder jolt.

“I know right!”

_______

Ginny was starting and Mike made a point not to send her off. This would be her last game or one of her last games, depending on management. He did make a few more trips to the mound than he normally would to make sure she was okay. The heat was something else today and he knew that got to her quickly now.

He wasn’t going to mention to her that they were in the lead and she was close to pitching a no hitter, again.

“I’m fine,” she groaned.“Let me pitch.”

“Are you sure Baker?” he asked, looking at her consideringly. She was sweaty and her cheeks were flushed from the heat.

They were in the sixth inning and she was getting closer and closer to throwing a no hitter. Guilt flushed through his body and soul. All possible outcomes if he left her continue on filtered through his head. He knew he wouldn’t forgive himself if she were to get injured again, but if he sent her off she’d never forgive him. And then if she pulled this off…

“Yes Cap, I’m fine,” she said as she brought the glove down from her mouth.

To say his overprotectiveness was frustrating was an understatement, but she knew he was just looking out for her, like a good captain does. In this setting he was Lawson her Captain, not Mike the father of her child and roommate. She smiled reassuringly at him from 60 feet away. Although his face was hidden by a mask, she could tell he was smirking.

Maintaining their eye contact, Mike called for her curveball but she shook him off. He signalled for her screwball and she nodded. She began to wind up, getting in position to pitch, when she felt it. The sweat was pouring off her and the sick feeling was coming up her throat.

‘Come on Baker,’ she murmured to herself, grabbing at her cap. After taking a deep breath, she tried again and pitched a perfect strike.

That was three outs so they made their way over to the dugout.

Sitting in the dugout, she looked around at her teammates. She felt nostalgic, knowing she was going to miss this. The team had quickly become her family, people she shared her struggles and victories with. When she had gotten injured, they had all rallied around her, taking turns driving her to appointments, sharing injury stories and getting blind drunk. Glancing at Mike, she remembered when he had told her about the first time his knees started causing a ruckus. She remembered their long conversations and smiled to herself.

Mike dropped down next to her, not uttering a single word.

Turning to face him, she pouted playfully. “Come on, you’ve gotta talk to me.”  

He turned to face her as well and immediately noticed she was sweating profusely.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, ignoring the rule.

“Yeah, why?” she frowned at him,slightly annoyed. This was her day.

“You look pale and sweaty Gin,” he said, concern evident in his words. He looked up at the camera man that’d swivelled the machine over to them. He had to be considerate not to say anything or show too much.

Ginny’s red flags went off.

“Mike, don’t do this to me again,” she seethed through her teeth. “Come on, not again.” She looked away from him, falling back into the bench.

“Gin, you look as pale as a ghost and it’s 104 out there,” he tried to reason with her.

“You’re going to have to drag me off of that damn mound Lawson. I’m pitching,” she said sternly under her breath, trying to make sure no one else could hear.

“The minute you don’t feel good - I’m serious, the minute you don’t feel good Gin, tell me,” he murmured seriously.

She looked at him, holding his gaze. He wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but it was extremely hard for her not to think of him as the asshole right now. God, she was going to miss this game. She was going to miss the concern in his eyes too, if she was really being honest with herself.

“I’ll tell you,” she said dismissively.

She was here to play ball. She wasn’t Ginny-Incubator right now. She was Ginny-Ballplayer, especially for this game.

______

Seventh inning and now she was really feeling it. The sweat was pouring off of her body and maybe he was right.

She really had been feeling too good earlier. The adrenalin had hit her mind full force but now her body wasn’t on board. She felt sluggish and heat flushed up across her chest and neck, up higher and residing on her cheeks. She could feel the burning sensation of her arm somewhere close to where she had injured it not long ago.

Sickness began to form a lump in the back of her throat.

Cursing under her breath, she motioned and Mike came running.

“Send me off,” she said, annoyed at herself, bringing the glove to her face, eyes going watery.

He looked at her apologetically. He knew better than anyone that she really didn’t want to be benched. He simply nodded and motioned to Al to send on a relief pitcher. Tommy made his way onto the field and they slapped hands as they passed by each other.

She could feel the frustration radiating down her body, and her legs felt like jelly.

Blip met her in the dugout, sitting next to her. He handed her a bottle of water, opening up the cap for her.

“Tough Baker,” he laughed as she downed the entire bottle.

She threw the bottle with a frustrated huff.

He nodded in sympathy. Now that he knew, he started to put two and two together. He now understood why she had been sent off a few more times than necessary this season and why they hadn’t let her bat for a while either. Initially he had thought it was management and their captain’s way of giving the relief ago.

They finished the game with a win.

She was waiting at the dugout, leaning against the fence, when Mike came through. He smiled at her, smirking like he always did when they won.

“Proud of yourself?” she laughed.

Mike slapped her ass as he bounced down the steps past her. “How could I not be?”

She turned to follow him with her tongue sticking out in her cheek. The way he looked down at her stomach quickly made it obvious that he wasn’t just proud of the game.

She walked beside him as they made their way through the tunnels and into the clubhouse, . He grew serious as he leant down to her level, bumping her with his arm. “I’m sorry, I know this game meant a lot.”

“It sucks, but there’ll be more,” she murmured back.

He made an effort to catch her eye. “There will be.”

He smiled that megawatt smile at her as he made his way to his cubby.

Voorhies quickly walked up beside her. “You and Lawson made up then after yesterday?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” she laughed mostly to herself. Voorhies shot her a confused look which she ignored.

As all their teammates filtered into the clubhouse, Ginny made her way to Mike, who  motioned around the clubhouse to get everyone’s attention.

“Listen up you mooks. We’ve got an announcement.”

Ginny instinctively moved slightly closer to him. Gearing herself up, she started tugging at her lower lip with her teeth.

“Quiet down,” Mike yelled out, swatting around with his arm. “We have something to tell you guys.”

Everyone turned to them expectantly. Most of them had huge smiles plastered on their faces, thrilled by their win.

Mike turned towards Ginny and glanced down at her stomach, which, he suddenly realized, was showing slightly with her uniform pants so high.

“Want to do the honours?” he asked her, smiling encouragingly.

“I don’t know cap, maybe you should,” she smirked.

He looked down, taking off his cap.

“It was Baker’s last game today,” he looked around the room, taking in their reactions.

“Baker and I are having a baby.” His voice went husky, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips.

Both Ginny and him looked around the room again.They watched as jaws dropped and silence fell across the room for a good five seconds before Buck broke it with a whoop.

“I called it!” Salvi exclaimed.

“Pay up losers,” Ellis laughed as he put his hand out for money.

“No way Mami, you havin’ a baby?” Livan asked incredulously.

“Hold up, you guys were making bets that I was pregnant?” Ginny asked, addressing the room.

“No way, I would never have guessed that. But we knew there was something going on between you and ol’ cap here the minute you guys said you’s started livin’ together,” Salvi brought his arm across Mike’s shoulder.

“There isn’t anything going on between us. Baker’s a bit of a hold out,” Mike smirked suggestively at Ginny.

“Oh yeah, sure.” Salvi laughed, bringing his hand down to Ginny’s stomach.

Ginny laughed along with them. Blip smiled from his chair, watching it all unfold.

“You are going to have to tell Evelyn,” Blip said, coming in for a congratulatory hug with Ginny.

“I know! It’s killed me keeping it a secret from her,” Ginny beamed up at Blip.

They continued around the room receiving their fair share of congratulations and answering any questions that their teammates had.

Oscar informed her that Amelia had already told the news to management that morning and HR was drawing up a contract as they’d obviously never had something like this happen.

They answered all the prodding questions, explaining to them that they weren’t in a relationship and were just friends. Every single time Mike repeated it, he wondered why they weren’t.

“I’m just going to go shower and get changed. I’ll meet you in the car?” Ginny asked, leaning in close to Mike’s side.

“Aren’t they releasing it to the media tonight too?” he asked.

“Yeah, but I definitely don’t want to be here when that happens.”

______

When he got to the car, Ginny was already sitting in the passenger seat. Her long legs were propped up comfortably and she was watching something on her iPad. He opened the trunk and stuffed his bag in.

“What’re you watching?” he asked, coming around the car to the driver’s side.

“I’m actually reading up on how to get rid of this itch,” she said, swiping to the left and writing down what was written on the screen.

“Still itchy?” he asked as he turned on the car.

“Yeah, God I’m so itchy,” Ginny groaned, laying back into the seat.

She brought her hand up to her stomach, pulling her shirt up and running her hands over her belly. Drawing light circles over her stomach, she tried to provide some relief to herself.

Mike struggled to to keep his eyes on the road knowing she was a few inches away rubbing smooth circles into her skin.

“Soak in the bath tonight?” he asked, raising his eyes at her from across the car as they stopped at a traffic light.

“Actually that sounds so good,” she agreed.

“So how’d it go in there?” she asked a few minutes later because the curiosity was killing her.

“Not too bad. I felt like I killed Omar’s puppy though,” he joked.

“Everyone was okay with it?” she wondered as she continued to stroke her abdomen.

“Yeah, they seemed to be. They were all giving me parenting advice, asking me how far along you were, when and where we had sex, what we wer -”

“They asked you when we had sex?” she interrupted, a deep crimson blush coming up her neck.

“Yeah,” Mike muttered.

“What did you tell them?” Ginny questioned, looking across the car at him.

“I told them it was none of their business,” he jested.

“Oh thank god.” Still looking across the car at him.

.

“You play on a team with 20 men, surely you knew they’d ask that gilded question. I mean they aren’t surprised you slept with me - I am irresistible to women.”  

“If I remember correctly captain, I was a few tequila shots down beforehand,” she quipped, laughing at him.

“Oh no, Baker, you don’t get to play that game with me. You wanted me bad,” he joked, crooning at the word ‘bad’.

“Oh, do you want to go there Lawson? If I remember correctly, it was you who propositioned me,” she laughed, her hands still on her bare stomach.

“You were the one who wanted -”

“Hey! If I remember, you weren’t rejecting,” she laughed a big belly laugh. She was clutching at her sides with laughter now.

“God, that hoarse  laugh,” he said looking across the car, adoration all over his features. He watched the apples of her cheeks redden at his admission. “Come on Baker, as if I would have rejected you that night, especially considering how hard up for it you were.”

She scoffed in reply. “Hey I resent that, I told you that in confidence, not for you to take advantage.”

“Oh we’re going there are we?” His laughter filled the car. “If anything, you took advantage of me!”

“No way captain! You took advantage of my weak, horny state,” she said playfully, reaching across the car to tap her finger against his arm pointedly.

“I remember the conversation Baker. ‘Honestly Mike, I think it’s him in general, maybe I need - maybe I need thicker. God, I just want to come, you know’,” Mike quoted her in a high-pitched, breathy voice.

“First of all, I don’t sound like that.Second of all, damn I was smooth, but you want to know what was smoother? ‘Rookie, if you need a helping hand, I’m only an elevator ride away’,” she quoted him in a deep voice.

Mike pulled into the driveway, putting the car into park. He took off his seat belt, turning to her. She was still rubbing circular motions over her stomach.

“God I was smooth. Do you remember the elevator ride up to your room? I’m surprised we didn’t get caught,” he joked.

“God, do I remember that elevator ride up to my room. I thought I was going to come right there and then and you hadn’t even gotten my underwear off.” She smiled at the memory as she moved to put her iPad into her bag that was resting at her feet.

Mike chuckled at her declaration, mind going back to that night -

“I need that helping hand,” she had murmured as the elevator doors closed, taking them up to their hotel rooms.

He remembered being surprised that she was taking him up on the offer but the shock was easily replaced with undeniable lust.He remembered how his body and mind had betrayed him that night. He remembered her looking at him hungrily, looking  down his body and leaning back against the adjacent wall invitingly.

And it was on. He crossed the short distance to her, hastily bringing his lips down to hers. He remembered the feeling of her warm skin as her arms intertwined around the back of his neck,bringing his body against her own. Mike remembered their lips connected as he thought he wouldn’t care about dying right there, having experienced just this. Her tongue was hot as it moved against his lips to gain access. Her entire body was a live wire, it had sparked a moan from deep in his throat. God, the moaning, he remembered the moaning. He remembered as the kiss turned dirty and desperate, she’d nipped at his bottom lip, pulled him in tighter against her body and brought her leg up against his thigh, trying to gain leverage.

He hadn’t needed to be told twice. He had brought his hands down to where her ass met the top of her thighs, picking her up and securing her against the wall as her calfs and ankles locked around his lower back. She had been so inviting and unbelievably hot. He shuttered at the memory of the way he had rutted against her, and the throaty moan that had fallen out of her lips and landed on his neck when his body had slammed forward into her.

He remembered her breathy thrusts into him as she gained leverage against him, arching her back into him. He remembered feeling her hard nipples through her shirt against his chest. He remembered everything.

He remembered when he’d brought his lips hungrily down her jaw, pressing his tongue against the column of her throat as he licked a wet trail up to just below her ear. He remembered how she’d purred encouragingly at the contact. He had continued to move his hips hard against he, as she pulled up his shirt to touch his lower stomach. He remembered his stomach dropping at the contact of her unbelievably warm hands right before the elevator dinged and the doors opened..

“Fuck,” she had said, laying her head back against the wall when he’d stopped his onslaught.

“‘My room or yours?” he remembered murmuring into her neck, helping her down off of his body.

“Mine.”

He shook his head, jolting himself back to the present.

“That would have made my job a lot easier if you had!” Mike joked as he went to unlock the front door, opening the door for her.

“Well aren’t you glad I didn’t?” Ginny said through a yawn.

“Tired? Little Lawson taking it outta ya’?” Mike asked, bringing both hands down to her stomach gently. Now that she’d let him touch her, he couldn’t stop. .

“Little Lawson hm?” she mocked.

“Little Baker-Lawson?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

She slowly gathered his hands and put them under her shirt. “Can you feel that?”

“Twice in one day?” He asked placing both open palms over her stomach, mesmerized with the feeling of her warm skin under his palm and their baby prodding beneath.

Mike looked at Ginny and could feel himself falling more and more in love with her. With her smile, the triumphs of what they were going through together, the heat and fire, the passion she had for the game, the baby they’d created together. All his feelings melted into one.

“Never in a million years would I have seen this happening,” Ginny said, gazing into his eyes.

“The poster on your wall didn’t get you fantasising about this?” he asked, smug smile playing on his features.

“Ha-ha, I did not have a poster Mike,” she said, rolling her eyes at him.

“Yeah, okay,” he laughed as he caressed her stomach. “God, Ginny, this feels so nice,” he said, pulling her closer into him.

“Yeah, it does,” she said, her eyes not leaving his.

_____

Ginny had been soaking in the bath for a good half hour when the Sanders made their grand entry into the house. Mike answered the door and Evelyn threw her arms around him, Blip coming in behind her.

“I can’t believe it!” Evelyn shouted in Mike’s ear, excitement radiating off her.

“Ginny’s in the bath, want me to get her out?”

Nerves had pooled in his stomach, very similar to the nerves of this morning. Although Blip was his best friend, they didn’t have the same history that Ginny had with the Sanders. Blip had seen the ugly side of Mike, so he could understand the aversion to this secret coming to light.  

“I’ll go and get her and leave you two to talk,” Evelyn smiled mischievously as she made her way up the staircase. “Ginny, get decent, I’m coming!” she yelled as she took two steps at a time.

“So… want a beer?” Mike asked Blip, unable to find the words to break the tension that had formed between them.

“Uh yeah,” Blip said awkwardly as Mike got up to open the fridge.

Cracking the beers open in silence, Mike tried to think of something fruitful to say.  

“Man, you guys are having a kid.” Blip finally broke the silence and put him out of Mike’s misery.

“Yeah,” Mike answered, smiling really proudly over at where Ginny and Evelyn were now sitting on the couch. He couldn’t help his ego. Seeing Ginny carrying his child and people knowing about it had quickly become his favourite part.

“Man how did that happen?” Blip asked.

“Arizona,” Mike answered simply. Blip had known that something went down in Arizona between them. After Mike and Ginny had slept together, the tension was palpable. They avoided each other like crazy until Blip told them to get their head back in the game, that he didn’t need to know what happened between them but they had sort their shit.

“How’d she tell you?” Blip asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

“On the mound, remember that game that we sent her off third inning? She flat out said she was pregnant and I needed to send her off because she was about to be sick,” he chuckled at the memory.

“Shit!” Blip laughed with him.

“Tell me about it, and I had to keep catching and all I could think about was her.” A smile spread across his face as he watched Ginny laugh at something Evelyn had said.

“Sorry about today man,” Blip said apologetically.

“I get it Sanders, I really do,” Mike answered honestly, his eyes still not leaving Ginny. Blip watched as Mike smiled unintentionally at the way Ginny laughed, the adoration and love that he saw fall across his face he recognised as his for his own wife.

“Do you love her?” Blip asked quietly after a moment, taking a sip of his beer.

Mike turned to Blip with a wide-eyed expression. Blip could practically see the gears working in Mike’s head, trying to work out how he knew.

“Yeah,” Mike said without hesitation.

“Does she know?” Blip asked.

“No,” Mike answered, letting a held breath out and looking down at his beer.

“You gonna tell her?” Blip asked, now looking at his own beer.

“No,” Mike repeated. He wasn’t going to tell her. Everything in their life was complicated enough at the moment.

“Okay. You want to play a game of pool?” Blip asked, getting up off of his chair. Mike sighed with relief of the change of topic.

“Yeah, ready for me to beat your ass?” Mike joked as he too got up and started making his way to the game room.

“Mike, you’ve been getting your ass handed to you for years, today’s not any different.”  

They’d made their way over to the pool table. Mike was winning by two balls, but Blip had it all lined up.They were both on their third beer and a lot of the tension had left the conversation. They talked about the team, Oscar and Amelia’s budding romance, if they’d make the playoffs without Ginny, pregnancy and how to handle the mood swings, which Mike had not come into contact with yet.

“Dude,trust me, it’s on its way. It’s as if the nausea stops and the mood swings begin,” Blip confirmed into his beer.

“I can barely handle her appetite as it is, how am I going to go when she’s moody?” Mike exclaimed into his own beer.

“Trust me, it gets a hell of a lot worse. I thought Ev was going to divorce me when I forgot her pop tarts,” he laughed, lining up a ball.

“No way!” Looking over at Blip astonished.

“Man, I’m telling you now Easy-Breezy Ginny will be a thing of the past, it’ll be tantrums over baked goods and smells. Pregnant ladies love complaining about the smell of things.”

“She’s already started on the smell. I was making chicken the other day and she was chucking up in the bathroom and she loves my chicken,” Mike laughed, lining up his own ball.

They continued like that for a few hours.

______

Ginny received a call from Amelia just after the Sanders had left. He leant forward on the counter between them as she sat on the barstool. He watched as she took the call, relief and apprehension flashed intermediately across her face as she continued to agree with whatever Amelia was saying. She was sitting comfortably in a pair of performance lycra tights and a hooded jumper, curly hair hanging on her shoulders. He watched as it bounced around while she changed hands continuously as Amelia spoke.

“I know, okay. No, I won’t take calls,” she huffed through the phone, clutching it to her ear.

“I know, I know.” Ginny groaned.

Mike continued watching her as she brought her feet up onto the chair, getting into her meditation pose that seemed to calm her nausea and anxiety.

“I have to go,” Ginny finally said into the phone, hanging up before Amelia could get a last word in.

“Everything okay?” Mike prodded, handing her a mug of tea with so much milk and sugar that it could barely be tea.

“She said to avoid any social media until everything dies down,” she said with a wry laugh, closing her eyes and she tried to regain control over her emotions.

“Nothing we can’t handle,” he tried to reassure her.

This was uncharted territory for them. As much as they had finally started to become comfortable with the idea that they were having a baby, it was still something that they were going to have to get used to. They had lived in their secret bubble of bliss for too long, relishing in the fact that no one knew and no one could weigh in on what exactly happened between them that got them into this. Hell, Mike could barely understand how he had let this happen.

“I know,” she sighed. “I’m just glad that it’s done. No more secrets.”

She brought her hands to her knees, straightening her back up and breathing in deeply.

“The statement read ‘Ginny Baker, Pitcher for the San Diego Padres ,has two very big announcements today. She’s deeply saddened to announce that today was her last game pitching for the Padres this season at PETCO park. She is also ecstatic to announce that she is pregnant with her first child to San Diego Padres captain Mike Lawson.’” She let out a begrudging laughing. “Short and sweet.”

“At least it’s done hey?” he said, watching her. Her eyes were still closed and he watched as she took in deep breaths.

“I can’t believe today was my last game,” she said quietly, opening her eyes and looking at him.

“It wasn’t your last game Rookie,” he said seriously.

“What if I never get to show you my cutter?” she wondered.

“I’ve caught enough of your lollipop screwballs to know I’ll get to see your cutter,” he taunted, sticking his tongue out at her.

She leaned across the countertop and gave a little push to his arm. Her eyes were light with humour, her white teeth coming to full view as she smiled at him, but he caught the flash of emotions that rolled through her expression.  

“Wow, I can’t believe it’s done. The media is probably eating me alive.” She gasped.

“Or eating me alive. I can read tomorrow’s headline now, ‘She was taken advantage of by her 13 years senior captain’ or ‘Mike Lawson, the idiot that got the first female MLB player pregnant.’”

“I have to agree with that last one,” she grinned at him.

“Nothing was stopping you. ‘I’m on the pill, just fuck me,’ remember?” he teased.

She scoffed. “I don’t sound like that and I definitely don’t remember those words leaving my mouth”

“Baker, gotta hand it to you, I wasn’t at all prepared for the dirty things that fell from your lips that night,” he smirked at her. .

She scoffed again but a blush traveled up her neck and resided on her cheeks as she recalled the details of that night. Mike leaned across the counter closer to her, schooling his expression not to disclose anything that he shouldn’t.

“Well I was just following your lead captain. ‘Fuck, you’re so wet and tight’,” she toyed.

Mike turned a shade of red under his beard but smirked at her.

“Oh you loved the dirty talk, Baker. Four times and then three times the next morning,” he looked over at her smugly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh it wasn’t only the dirty talk, I mean it was a little bit but -” Her voice dropped low as she leaned over, suggestively running a hand through his beard and down his jawline. “I couldn’t walk properly for a week.” Dropping her hand away from his face, as if he had zapped her, her eyes darkened as she looked away from his lips.

He hummed at the loss of contact.

“I knew you loved the beard,” he spoke low, nodding his head up a little to showcase the scuff.

“Never…” she said coyly as she ravished him with her eyes, unconsciously darting her tongue out to wet her bottom lip .

She reached for the bottom of the jumper she was wearing. Mike had turned on the heat knowing that as the days got warmer the nights hadn’t started yet.

“Oh you definitely appreciate the beard,” he said, trailing off as he watched her shirt tug up with her jumper, revealing her smooth flesh. She hadn’t been shy about her body since they’d slept together. She was unintentionally trying to kill him or make him want her even more than he already did. Probably both.

“Stop giving me those eyes Mike.” She sounded breathy as his eyes travelled back up her face.

Arousal coursed through his body so fast and hot, you’d think he had never seen her body before. Hell, the conversation wasn’t even that dirty but she did something to him. He trying to put those thoughts out of his mind.

“What eyes?” he demanded without any heat. He was flustered now, he’d been caught red handed.

“The same eyes you gave me this morning in the bathroom,” she mused back at him, sultering off towards the stairs.

Yep, she was trying to kill him. He leaned against the countertop, watching as she made her way up the stairs. Chances were that she could feel his eyes watching her ass as she swayed her hips. He really needed to get a handle on himself. He couldn’t keep falling into that rabbit hole of want.  


	3. Chapter 3

They told me that to make her fall in love, I had to make her laugh. But everytime she laughs, I’m the one who falls in love. - Tommaso Ferraris

A few days after the announcement, Mike woke up with an all too familiar twinge in his back. Thinking about the painful run through with Sonny the day prior, he got out of bed with a loud grunt. Adding insult to the injury, he could hear his pregnant roommate humming away on the treadmill. 

As he peeked into the gym room just off the hallway, he saw Ginny working up a sweat. He took in her appearance - her glistening brow, her curls in a loose bun atop her head, her uniform of lycra pants and oversized tee with a pair of headphones - as she hummed away to some new Ed Sheeran song. Mike can’t help but laugh to himself as he leaned against the door, pulling his arms across his chest and watching her. 

“Hey,” she said breathlessly, as she started slowing down on the treadmill and removing her headphones.. 

“Hey,” Mike looked at Ginny with a mischievous smirk.

“What has you all smiley?” Ginny frowned.“You didn't do anything gross in here, did you?” 

“Nothing, just watching,” he chuckled.

“Okay…” 

She put her headphones back into her ear, seemingly unfazed by his staring but Mike knows her better than that. He continued to leaning against the doorframe, smirking at her. 

After a few minutes, Ginny begrudgingly removed her headphones from her ears again with an annoyed sigh. “I can't work out with you staring at me like that. Go away, you perv.” 

“You're just so nice to look at Gin,” he said with a huge smirk across his face, the type of smirk she knew meant he was about to start teasing her. 

“Really?” she raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m in love with your body.” 

She flushed instantly, “What?” 

“That’s the new song isn’t it?” 

She laughed out loud in reply, but the crimson spreading across her chest and cheeks didn’t go unnoticed. Mike had made her blush. He went to leave the room, letting out a soft groan at the movement. 

“You okay old man?” 

“Yeah,” Mike grunted, straightening his legs.   
_______

After ending a phone call, Mike made his way into the kitchen, where Ginny was sitting at the island, eating her breakfast. She’d just showered, he could smell the sweet vanilla scent of her damp hair, nothing ever smelled as good as Ginny after she showered. 

“Are you going down to the park today?” Mike asked as he watched her take a mouthful of what looked like oats or goo. 

In all the time he’d known Ginny Baker he’d never seen her dig into a bowl of milky cereal. He laughed at the irony that it took getting pregnant to curb her carb overload of eggs, bacon and sausages. 

“Yeah, I haven’t left the house in days. I need to get out of here,” Ginny said as she ate another spoonful. 

Mike leaned over her shoulder to see what she was eating, “Looks healthy, what is it?” 

“Some healthy fibre crap I found in the pantry,” she said, grimacing as she ate another mouthful. 

“Gimme a taste,” he said, opening his mouth. 

She brought the spoon into his mouth with raised eyebrows. e sloshed it around, grimacing at the sugary taste. 

“Geez Baker, what’d you do? Add half a bag of sugar to it?” 

“Well it needed something!” 

Mike made his way over to the fruit bowl, grabbing a banana and handing it to her. “Here, you need some sort of balance.” 

Ginny rolled her eyes as she took it from him, unpeeling it and taking a bite. “Happy now?”

He gave her a sly smile as if he’d accomplished something. 

“Very,” he leaned down to her level, touching the tip of her nose with the pad of his index finger. 

Her cheeks reddened at the contact, and she sheepishly looked away. He quickly pulled back and bent down to grab his bag off of the floor, groaning at the uncomfortable movement. 

“How’re your knees today old man?” she asked. 

“Sixty five,” Mike pouted. “I’m not playing today, working on phase two. They’ve got me doing a spot for the post-game broadcast,” Mike grimaced. 

“You going to go on a tirade about how amazing I am again?” Ginny said, trying to spark a laugh out of him. 

He tilted his head, “And they say I’m the narcissist?” 

Ginny leaned back over the counter towards him mirroring his earlier gesture. “Well I did learn from the best.”   
_____ 

Mike needed to be at the studio early which sucked because as the captain, he wanted to be there to finish the game whether he was playing or not. He came through the clubhouse doors, noticing Ginny was stretching her legs out on the floor. She was watching the live footage as the camera panned to Livan on home base and Sonny on the mound. 

“You going to be okay in here, Baker?” Mike asked, making his way over to his cubby, pulling his shirt over his head. He’d noticed since they’d announced her last game, she worked harder at sticking to her regime. Mike wondered if it helped keep her sane with all the media attention. 

“Better than being out there,” she sighed. “We’re close to getting our asses kicked by the Chicago Mets.”

He moved over to her, looking up at the TV. 

“Whaddaya’ think of Duarte as a catcher?” he asked curiously, coming down to rest his forearms on the back of the lounge. 

Ginny looked up over her shoulder, Mike straightened up, her eyes following the smooth muscles of his stomach with a big appreciative grin.

“He hasn’t done anything stupid,” Ginny’s eyes came up to meet his. 

“Enjoying the view Baker?” he smirked as he started to make his way back over to the cubby, grabbing his white dress shirt. 

“Oh definitely,” she toyed, her eyes not leaving his body as he turned back towards her putting his arms through his shirt. 

“Eh, eh, Baker, my eyes are up here.” He gestured with his hand.

“I’m in love with your body,” she said recovering quickly, repeating his words back at him. 

“Is that so? Even the beard?” 

“No, definitely not the beard,” she teased. 

Mike moved back over to her from behind, bracing her with his arms, locking her into place as he brought his beard down to where her neck met her collarbone. He began playfully rubbing away, she attempted to move away at the contact but his grasp had her locked into place. 

“Oh you love the beard,” he laughed into her neck, continuing to tickle her lightly with his facial hair, arms flexing holding her in place. 

She started giggling at his touch,“Stop it!” 

“Not until you admit it.” 

She laughed a big belly laugh as she continued to try to squirm away. 

“Stop it!” she snorted as he stroked her, his breath hot on her neck. 

The air became charged instantaneously with tension as he felt her shudder into his touch. His lips met the spot just below her ear, a feather against her skin. He felt her relax into his hold, the back of the lounge between them, she laid her head back against the top. 

Ginny tilted her head, giving him more access to continue, humming at the contact. 

He pulled up slightly so he could look at her properly. If he was going to do this, he needed solid confirmation. When Mike met her eyes, Ginny was already watching him, her pupils blown out. She held his stare as she nodded once, a small nod but an invitation. 

“And there’s nothing going on between you two?” Amelia laughed as she came into the clubhouse, a milkshake for Ginny in her hand.

Mike lurched back from the closeness between them, running his hand through his hair as if he’d been caught doing something wrong. 

He looked down, painfully aware he was still half naked. He grabbed his clothes and made his way down the hall. 

“Baker, I'll meet you at home,” he said, his voice coming out thick. 

Ginny didn't look back as she slurped the strawberry milkshake Amelia gave her, “yeah.”

When he finished dressing, he made his way back to the bowels of the stadium, finding Amelia slumped against the wall waiting for him. 

“You know they’ll ask you about Ginny, right?” 

“I know,” Mike nodded apprehensively, bringing his bag higher on his shoulder. 

Amelia looked at him meaningfully, “Be considerate of what you say, she still wants to be seen as a ball player.” 

He gawked at her, “She is a ball player, Amelia.”   
____

The camera crew had just finished fastening the almost invisible microphone into Mike’s suit jacket when the producer started running through the checks. 

Mike kept his eyes on the crew, unexpected nerves building up in his chest. The producer started motioning with his fingers 3, 2, 1. 

Mike turned to the anchor, Ned.

“It’s been a big season for San Diego Padres Captain and hometown hero Mike Lawson,” Ned began. “It’s good to have you with us.” 

As the camera panned on his face, Mike took a deep, steadying breath. 

“Thanks for having me,” Mike said, his voice calm and composed despite his nervousness. 

“Let’s get right into it. The Padres had an impressive and surprising win against the Chicago Mets tonight, especially considering all the media attention on the unexpected pregnancy of pitcher Ginny Baker. Mike, give us your thoughts.” 

Mike hesitated, surprised Ned would immediately bring up Ginny’s pregnancy. 

“Yeah, it's been a hard year for us. Sonny and Blip just returned from the DL. Trade rumours have been surrounding the team since last year. We’ve had a few issues with a change of management but we've come together and really pulled it off.” He decided the right thing to do was to completely avoid answering the question about Ginny. 

Mike couldn’t shake the strange feeling of people talking about his personal life and baseball simultaneously. When he was married to Rachel, he had never been worried if a reporter brought it up. Now he was hyper aware whatever he said would be making headlines. 

“Especially with having send your starting pitcher off throughout this season?” Ned prompted.

Mike could think of a million things he should have said. The heat was too much for anyone to play through and Ginny was quickly approaching her pitching limit. He looked around the room, 

“She came back from her injury better than ever, as you saw in her last game,” he said.

“But you have had to send her off,” Ned pointed out. “Did that have to do with her pregnancy?” 

Mike was silent, not wanting to answer the question.

“Her pregnancy has come as a shock to baseball fans who've followed her story. It'll be hard to come back from this,” Ned prodded.

Mike couldn't help the defensive flare that rose in his chest. 

“I don't think so. She's pregnant, not incapacitated. Hell, she could run thirty laps around me and half the team and she's 22 weeks,” Mike paused, trying to collect his thoughts. 

He looked around the studio, if he was going to do it, he might as well go all the way.

“Man, this game is hard enough as it is. This woman is a gamer. She was going through hitters with me while wrapped around a toilet bowl. She’s a ballplayer at heart.”

“Yeah, I probably had to send her off a few more time’s than she would have liked,” he continued ranting, “but it doesn’t matter what you throw at her, injury or pregnancy, she gets right back up. She’s hell of a lot stronger than what she's given credit for.”

Ned smiled knowingly at Mike. “Must be killing her not being out on the mound, especially this close to playoffs.” 

“Trust me, if she had it her way, she’d be pitching until she was ready to drop,” Mike laughed.

“And how is the team dealing with new catcher Livan Duarte? Last time we caught up, he had just \signed with the Padres.” Ned turned to Mike.

Mike sighed with relief at the change of subject. “Duarte is a great catcher. He’s started to get used to the team, he reads the batters well, makes the right calls. He's a good addition to the Padres.” Mike stayed diplomatic. 

“No tension in the clubhouse then?” Ned laughed.

“Oh no, definitely tension. We’re still reeling from Voorhies’ hair cut,” Mike laughed. “The team is doing well.” 

“Alright before we go to an ad break, thanks Mike for joining us,” Ned closed.

“Always a pleasure,” Mike smiled back, shaking his hand quickly.

Mike breathed out a sigh of relief as the cameras cut and the producer motioned that he could leave. He turned to Ned as he thanked him personally without the cameras.   
____

The whole way home all Mike could think about were Amelia’s words, ringing in his head. If he’d just treated Ginny like any other rookie pitcher, she wouldn’t have had to finish her second season early. He wouldn’t have grown close to her, he wouldn’t have gotten involved with her personal drama. Hell, he wouldn’t have even cared about a poster and he definitely wouldn’t propositioned her, he wouldn’t have invited her to Boardners that night.

“Ginny, I’ve got food,” he yelled as he closed the front door behind him, dropping his bag at the threshold. He made his way into the kitchen, undoing his tie and top button. 

“Yeah, what’d you get?” he heard Ginny call from the top of the staircase.

“Sushi and some really hideous chicken roll thing I think you’ll like,” Mike called back as he grabbed a beer from the fridge and made his way to the couch, flipping on the TV. Ginny came in from behind him. 

“I heard what you said tonight,” she said as she sat next to him, unwrapping the chicken roll. Like a magnet, Mike bent down to grab at her foot to take her socks off. She willingly let him relinquishing to a puddle as he began softly caressing the skin at her ankle.

“You did?” He didn’t make eye contact at her, using her feet as a distraction. 

“Yeah, I did.” She spoke softly. 

“I meant every word” 

Mike could feel her gaze burning a interested hole into his skull. Everything with Ginny was beginning to become complicated, he didn’t know where the line stopped sometimes, they had a playfulness about them he’d gotten so used to but how far curved could the line go. 

“I know you did.” 

“Okay.” 

“You really stroked the narcissist in me,” she prodded at him, trying to get a reaction. 

Mike laughed, finally meeting her eyes. She masked her emotions well, but not well enough. Each time they’d gotten close to discussing what exactly was going on between them or even acting on something, a distraction come into play. 

He began massaging her feet with effort now, running his thumb into the centre ridge. She hummed in appreciation, laying back against the couch. He felt her relax as the tension released. They stayed like that for a long time, watching some ridiculous romantic comedy neither of them paid attention to, instead enjoying each other’s company. . 

“So, Amelia told me we have this charity thing soon,” Ginny began, bringing Mike out of his thoughts. 

“Make A Wish foundation function thing?” he asked turning to her, 

“Yeah, I’m presenting an award,” he watched as she brought the pad of her thumb to bite. “I have a plus one, are you going?”

“Ginny, do you need a plus one?” Mike laughed, 

“Shut up, I have a plus one.” A grin spread across her face as she affectionately ran her hand across her lower abdomen. 

“Hard earned plus one you’ve got there,” he cooed as he brought a hand over the top of hers. “I mean it’d be bad form to take someone else while you’re there right,” he teased, big smirk breaking out across his face. 

“Oh don’t feel obliged or anything captain, I mean I am carrying your child and all,” 

_____

The following day he noticed she was in the kitchen looking at her tablet huffing at whatever she was reading, brow furrowed. 

“What’s going on?” Mike asked concerned, 

She passed over her tablet to him as he made his way around the island, he looked at her and then down. The headline to the news article read ‘Ex tells all, Ginny Baker cheated with Mike Lawson’ his blood ran cold and anger made its way up his throat.

“Tech guy told all?” he asked incredulously.

“Yeah, they’re ripping me apart,” Ginny murmured, taking the tablet back. 

“Look at what he said: ‘Ginny didn’t even have the decency to break up with me before she slept with Mike Lawson’ That’s bullshit, I broke up with him before we slept together,” she said, annoyance in her voice. “I did the right thing.” 

“You broke up with him before we slept together?” Mike asked surprised, 

“Yeah, why are you surprised?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at him, 

“So you were planning on sleeping with me before that night?” he asked, smug smile playing on his lips, hands coming to cross over his chest. 

Oops, “We’re not talking about it right now,” she said, faking annoyance at him and his suggestive nature. 

“Oh, we’re definitely talking about it Ginny.” 

“No we are not,” she challenged him over the counter top, 

“So what exactly did you tell him, ‘I’m hard up for it and you're not cutting it’?” he asked teasingly, leaning down over the counter towards her, 

Ginny met his eye, “None of the above, I told him I wanted to focus on myself, which wasn’t exactly a lie was it? but what makes you think you did reach where needed to be reached?” She finished off with a smirk. 

Mike snorted, “Oh I know I reached where needed to be reached Baker.” 

“Are you sure?” she asked as she tilted her head to the side, Mike mirrored her.

“Definitely.” 

She was playing with him but it definitely getting to Mike’s ego, “I wouldn’t be so sure Mike…” 

“Do you need a reminder?” 

“Maybe,” she said, batting her eyelashes at him, challenge in her expression and well fuck, what could Mike possibly say to that. 

Mike cleared his throat, where did all his saliva go? He wondered. 

“Smart ass.” 

“Mhm,” she had a twinkle in her eye, she’d accomplished something. Confirmation that he was wrecked and fuck did Mike know it. 

“So when is this Make A Wish thing,” Mike asked clearing his throat again, he needed to change the topic before he made a complete idiot of himself.

“Two weeks, Amelia’s got some dressmaker coming around in an hour if you want to clear out,” she said going back to her tablet. 

“Alright, I’ll be at the ballpark,” he said as he made his way around the counter, grabbing her tablet out of her hands “and gimme that, enough reading this crap,”

She huffed handing it over to him.   
___ 

To say Ginny was sexually frustrated was an understatement. When you’ve got a kid growing in your body with the captain on the San Diego Padres it’s really hard to find a bedmate and that sucked. What sucked more was seeing Mike Lawson peacock around shirtless after a swim or just because it was ‘too hot’ to put anything else on. What also sucked was he wasn’t shy in admiring her body, he had no problem anymore bringing his hand to her stomach, it almost killed Ginny not to grab his hand and push it lower. 

No you know what sucked more, having to get yourself off when all you really want is to be fucked, and that was where Ginny Baker was at. She was horny and she knew horny. She had grown up around half naked sweaty testosterone fueled men and she’d kept herself in check, where she was, was an entirely different ballgame. 

She was horny beyond what is truly necessary and it suddenly made sense why people waited until they had husbands or partners to have a kid because this was something else. This was tension. 

One dick in particular and the fact that Mike Lawson wasn’t shy about strutting his shit everywhere made her mad, he should know right? 

“What’s up your ass Baker, you’ve been moody since this morning?” Mike asked, arms crossing across his bare chest. He was using his captain voice and jesus did it get her blood boiling and get her going all at the same time. 

“You.” She was pissed, Ginny Baker was pissed off. 

“What?” 

“How would you like it if I pranced around here all naked all the time,” 

He smirked, “Is this bothering you?” 

“Yeah it is, put some clothes on, new house rule.” 

“Feeling hard done by are you?” 

Ginny wanted nothing more than to smack that wide jawed smirk off of his face, or let it lick down her throat. 

“Yeah I am, I’ve got a giant sign strapped to my body saying unfuckable.” 

Mike’s eyes travelled down her body to where her stomach protruded, she was wearing a sports bra and lycra three quarter leggings, a second skin. She was the tease, “Baker, you're definitely fuckable,” 

“Shut up and put a shirt on,” 

She didn’t stop looking at his body, hell if he was going to walk around half naked all the time she was going to enjoy the view. She needed something to get her off. 

“By the way your looking at me, I would think you’d want me to keep it off.” 

She kept up the charade, “No, I don’t.” 

But her eyes told a different story, she wanted his hard body against her, she wanted him to do all the things he’d been imagining doing to her, but maybe Mike was reading into a glance far too much. 

“Are you sure?” His arms unfolded and he started to play with the top of his shorts. 

“Stop it Lawson,” her eyes were stuck on his hands, Ginny darted her tongue out to wet her bottom lip. 

“Are you sure Baker, I mean, I could keep going?” 

“No, I’m fine thanks,” Ginny willed her eyes to look away, bringing her lower lip into her mouth as she made her way out of the living room and into the kitchen, she needed water. Her mouth had gone dry and the lump in her throat was not leaving. 

“Are you sure?” 

Mike came into the kitchen behind her leaning against the counter top as she turned around one arm stretched on the top of refrigerator door. Ginny brought the water bottle to her lips, there was only a small distance between them, he could make out the flush of her chest, the way her throat bobbed as she swallowed. 

He was turned the fuck on, he took a nice lengthy view of her body, head tilted back, soft skin for miles, he was glad she’d skipped the shirt today.

“Mhm,” she finally said swallowing down the remainder. 

He leaned forward, closing the distance between them only to lean down and grab a water. Mike’s skin came into contact with Ginny’s and she jolted back into the cupboard behind her. 

Mike raised his eyebrows at her, “Settle down there Rookie, I’m just grabbing a drink,” 

Ginny leaned her head back against the cupboard closing her eyes. 

Mike, never one to miss an opportunity, leaned into her neck, her back flush against the cupboard, “you know, if you ever need a helping hand…” 

Her breathing stuttered at the contact of his breath against her skin. Ginny opened her eyes to meet his and he was close, really close, like a feel-his-breath against her lips close, she rocked forward into him, as he glanced down at her lips and back up again to her eyes questioningly. 

The pool of heat that flushed through her body and resided neatly in her underwear was embarrassing. How did a little touch and beard brush on her neck get her so turned she wondered to herself. 

She met his eyes again, giving him a nod. 

He brought his lips to her hard, her tongue instantly finding his, you’d think he was the one who was sexually frustrated. His hands travelled around to her ass, squeezing it in closer rutting his dick against her, she panted against his mouth, the swirl of her tongue made him groan, as she brought her hands up to his face, threading her hands through his beard inhaling him. The kiss got sloppy and desperate real fast. 

He pulled apart from her panting, “God I’ve been dying to do that for months.” 

She smiled at his admission, her hands caressed down his body, she watched her hands as they moved lightly down his arms and up over his chest, feathering with the little tufts of hair. She looked back up at him through her lashes, a coy smile now on her lips.

“Oh really?” 

Mike brought his head down to her neck, kissing up to her jaw line, swirling his tongue right up until he reached her ear. Ginny’s head threw back, chest heaving at the sensation, Mike took that as an invitation, his mouth attached to the column of her throat licking and sucking at the skin, his beard brushing caressingly, god she had missed his beard. He parted their hips, bringing one of his hands over her stomach, caressing the bump moving lower for good reason. He toyed with the top of her leggings, pulling at the fabric, dipping his hand into the front. She let out a throaty moan when he finally dipped his fingers over the seam of her. 

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful Ginny,” he murmured against her skin, beard tickling gently. 

He dragged a single digit up over her, spreading her lips apart he found the hard nub of her clit running a hard circle, 

She leaned forward, panting into his shoulder. 

“Didn’t realise how hard up for it you were.” His voice came out thick. 

Ginny looked up to meet his smug smirk as he continued his ministrations on her clit, she was obscenely wet. Pressured circles gliding over her nub, she was withering now, losing control, clenching down on nothing, Ginny now achingly aware how badly she needed more. 

She moved hands down his body on a mission, caressing his the skin at the waistband of his shorts, she didn’t waste time pulling the fabric away from his skin and shoving her hand down his pants smoothing the precome seeping out of the head down his shaft. She made a fist around the head as he fucked forward into her hand, bringing his free hand against the cupboard near her head bracing himself. He grunted into her neck as she moved her hand up and down.

He pulled backwards pulling his hand out of her pants grabbing at the side of her leggings and shoving them down over her hips. Mike let out a breathy laugh, struggling to get them down her thighs.

“Jesus these things are tight,” he muttered. 

Ginny let out a giggle as she brought her hands down to his finally getting them off. Mike moved his hands up to where her sports bra met her skin, pulling it over her head and throwing it across the kitchen. 

He stepped back now, she was smiling one of those full grin smiles, confident as ever. She was beautiful, everything about her, Mike smiled dorkily back at her. “Fuck Ginny you're so beautiful” he repeated, mesmerised by the movement of her body, her chest heaving, flush running up over her breasts, taut nipples on display. 

She ran her hands down her body, caressing the skin under her breasts, his dick twitching with need against her stomach. 

She reached forward grabbing at the fabric around his hips pulling him forward into her, her mouth crashing against his. Her tongue swelling against his bottom lip gaining access to massage his, he leaned forward again, she pushed down at the shorts, freeing his achingly hard dick, it bobbed obscenely against his upper thigh. Mike came forward rutting against her hip, she moved her thigh up the side of his trying to gain leverage as Mike her thigh higher against his hip. 

He knew a sign when he saw a sign, he pulled at her calf, bringing her centre into his. Her wet folds engulfing his leaking cock, if she was hard done by then he was worse off. His dick brushing against the pool of heat which resided in her apex. He rubbed forward letting out a moan, as she brought her leg higher again on his hip, the head of his dick brushed her entrance. 

Ginny was not a time waster, she brought her hand down to his, guiding him forward, humming at the contact of being so close. Mike tilted his hips slightly, letting out a throaty groan at how tight she was. 

“Fuck,” 

He pulled away he needed to, if he stayed in her heat he was going to come and that’s not what she needed. Ginny huffed in frustration, her eyes flinging open at the separation

“Lay up here,” patting at the kitchen counter. He knew they wouldn’t be able to do it standing up with her belly anyway.

She laughed as she got up onto the counter knowing exactly why, she laid down on the cool marble as Mike leant down over her body, he kissed a wet trail down from her neck, making his way to her right nipple, taking it between his lips and flickering his tongue harshly against it, she moaned loudly as he alternated between scrapping with his teeth and licking the sensation away, his other hand moving between her slick folds, he trailed down over her clit to her entrance, slowly pushing a finger in. 

He hooked his finger inside her, curling around until she let out a loud moan, her lips lifting off of the counter, slowly pushing another finger in she hummed with appreciation, her pussy fluttering. 

Mike’s tongue continued flickering against her nipple, he started up a slow rhythm, strumming at her clit with his thumb as he pumped her slowly. 

Her hands were everywhere, eventually finding purchase in his hair, she held him tightly to her him to her breast as his tongue worked over time scraping gently and finger beginning to speed up, thumb rubbing harder. 

Ginny clenched hard against his fingers, she felt a red hot flush drop over her, and she was coming, white lights and blood rushing her ears, she curved upwards, almost as if she levitated coming back down to lay boneless against the counter, head knocking back. 

Mike was the first to speak, 

“Feel better now?” 

Her laugh rang out across the kitchen. Letting out a moan as he scissored his fingers inside of her, “Or do you want me to keep going?” 

Ginny finally looked at him now, he had removed his body from hers but he was still close, she suddenly felt self conscious, had she been so eager to jump in the sack with him she hadn’t realised how badly this could screw things up between them? Was she stupid, had she not learnt from the first time they did this that this was not a good idea? 

“No, no, it’s okay. Sorry.”

Mike huffed, he removed his fingers from her body, giving her room to breath. “You okay?”

She started making her way off the counter, making an effort to not meet his body with her eyes and sure as hell not his face. “I’m fine.” 

He reached forward, grabbing her by the wrist, “Hey, nothing’s changed Baker.” 

Ginny knew he only called her Baker when he had to get his shit in check, in actual reality, everything had changed. As if the planet had shifted or he was in an alternate reality, everything has changed. She glanced at his hold on her wrist, willing herself to get her own shit together. 

“I know.” 

When Ginny met his eyes she knew everything had changed for him too. He also knew that’s not what she needed right now, he wasn’t stupid when it came to Ginny Baker’s cues and this cue was telling him to leave well enough alone, to make a joke, to bring them back to normal territory. 

“You know, if you ever need another help-in hand, I’m your guy.” 

She smirked, the tension left her body instantaneously, the heated gaze turned into jelly as she moved about getting her sport’s bra off of the ground. 

“Good to know,” 

“I mean, I wouldn’t want you to go without,” 

Ginny laughed as she pulled up her leggings, “What a caring teammate.” 

“What can I say, I’m just that type of captain.” He grinned as he too pulled up his pants. 

___

 

What happened in their kitchen went unspoken about, the few weeks between went by smoothly, until the night of the charity event. 

Mike felt like nothing but a schmuck as he watched Ginny descend down the staircase. She was wearing a tight full length dress, black lace encasing her breast, the slit ran up her thigh giving a healthy view of a toned leg, one long lace sleeve, and a bare toned arm showing. Mike needed to catch his jaw off the floor, as she turned to her side he became obscenely proud, her stomach protruded in the dress, her stomach had grown. 

She laughed ghosting her hand over her stomach playfully. Making a show of how big her belly had really became. 

“Look good?” she asked laughing, if he was honest with her, he’d tell her how badly he wanted to tell her of his undying love or rip apart the dress and bury his head between her thighs 

“Very good Baker,” Mike grunted out, he needed to remember they weren’t doing this. 

Mike made a mental note that he only used her surname to address her when he needed to get his head in the game, when he needed to remember she didn’t want to do this with him, that one night had gotten them into a world of trouble, but nothing further was going to happen between them, he used it as a totem of the line they’d created. 

“Good. I feel like a whale,” but her eyes were on him as she took him in, she’d seen him in suits before but tonight, but something about the way his eyes travelled up and down her… She turned away from him embarrassed at the attention. 

“A beautiful whale, really, a very nice whale,” he teased as he moved to put on his shoes. 

“How’re we playing this tonight?” she asked as she looked up at him from tightening the straps to her heels. 

“Whadda you mean?” 

“I mean, people are going to wonder why we’re coming together if we’re not together,” she asked motioning between them.

“We’re going to do what we’ve been doing Gin, we’re going to ignore the prodding questions, eat some free food, drink some free booze,” he said smiling over at her, he watched as the tension left her shoulders. 

As they arrived to the event they made a beeline for the bar, Mike grabbed a beer as Ginny took a glass of water, “I’d kill for a beer right now,” she murmured to him, noticing they were being looked at by a lot of the attending. 

Mike scanned the ballroom, his breath caught as he glimpsed Rachel making her way over to them from the other side of the room, turning quickly to Ginny, “Don’t freak, Rachel is coming over,” 

“Are you kidding,” Ginny asked turning towards him, covering her face with her hand as if that was enough to hide them, between the beaker that was her stomach and now her attire, she was going to definitely get attention tonight.

“It’ll be fine,” he murmured to her, grabbing at her hand to move it away and turning her to the direction Rachel was coming from, “Oh yeah, considering your phone call with her, I don’t think so,” Ginny grimaced. 

“Hi,” both Ginny and Mike said in unison, Ginny smiled as she lengthened her arm out to shake Rachel’s hand. 

“Hi, you look beautiful,” Rachel said to Ginny quickly giving her a glance, but her eyes were on Mike. 

“Thanks, you look nice too,” Ginny smiled, moving her body to get into Rachel’s eye sight. Maybe it was petty but Ginny felt a surge of dominance and probably a little jealousy, Rachel wasn’t a whale right now fitted in a very beautiful embellished short white dress, that not only did wonders for her legs, but her red tresses tumbled down her back as well.

“And I obviously look handsome and irresistible,” Mike laughed sensing the tension in Ginny’s demour . Both Ginny and Rachel rolled their eyes at him, “I see impending fatherhood has not changed you,” Rachel laughed, she hadn’t looked away from Mike the entire conversation. 

“Not in the slightest,” Mike was completely obliviously, as he moved his left hand across his body to touch Ginny’s growing stomach. 

Ginny blushed at the attention, as much as the petty side of her wanted Rachel to suffer, she also wasn’t petty enough to rub it in her face. Ginny moved her hand atop of Mike’s giving it a squeeze as she moved his palm away.

They fell into a weird silence, as Rachel watched it happen. Ginny could sense the uncomfortable tension building in her, the yearning in Rachel’s eyes. It hurt, it all hurt. 

“I better go find Blip and Ev,” she turned to Mike, “I’ll see you later?” 

Mike nodded at her, she could see the panic in his eyes as she went between them, she purposely bumped her stomach against him, maybe to remind him or maybe because it was comforting for Ginny. She knew the history but she definitely didn’t want to be the other woman. The women who fell pregnant to someone else’s husband, even if they were already divorced. 

Mike turned to Rachel, his head tilted, “You okay?” 

“Yeah, of course. Ginny looks beautiful,” Rachel sighed meeting his eyes. Her eyes said what her voice wouldn’t carry. She was hurt, he had seen that expression countless times throughout their marriage. 

“I’m sorry,” 

“It was about her, when you broke it off, wasn’t it,” It wasn’t a question but a statement, a true fact. 

Mike nursed his beer in his hand, looking down at it, “It was about us Rach, you deserved better, we were familiar, you know that.” 

Her eyes met the ground as she fiddled with her hands, “I wish I didn’t,”

He reached up, placing his hand on her shoulder, “I’m sorry Rach.” 

“I know you are,” the tears began to well in her eyes as she brought her hands up fluttering to dry up anything that could stray. “You love her?” 

“I really wish I didn’t,” he sighed. 

A part of him would always love Rachel, a really big part of him. When he’d fallen in love with her she’d been the most amazing, incredible woman he’d ever met. She was confident, strong willed and there had been an air about her which was irresistible. But too much time had passed between them, too much anger and resentment, too much unrepairable damage. And then he’d met Ginny Baker. 

Ginny made her way around the room, glass of water in hand when she spotted Blip and Evelyn at an adjacent bar, locking eyes with Evelyn. “Oh thank god I found you! Damn, Ginny Baker pregnancy suits you well!” Evelyn exclaimed coming over to Ginny, kissing her on the cheek. 

“Hi to you too!” Ginny laughed, “Damn mamma, you look beautiful,” Blip said following Evelyn's lead leaning in to kiss Ginny on the cheek. 

“Where’s Mike?” Evelyn asked, looking around Ginny. 

“He’s over there talking to Rachel,” Ginny motioned behind her with her thumb, rolling her eyes annoyed, she noticed Blip and Evelyn's eyes raised questioningly at her, 

“I don’t know what’s unsaid between them, but I definitely don’t want to be caught between that.” Ginny explained. 

“They are talking about you, he's looking over here,” Evelyn laughed, watching over Ginny’s shoulder. 

Ginny’s hand moved over her stomach instinctively, “I doubt that.”

“Gin, don’t be stupid, the guy only has eyes for you,” Blip laughed. 

“No he doesn’t,” Ginny grumbled, 

“Uh, yeah he does,” Evelyn quipped, “Especially in that dress, damn Gin,” she said grabbing her hand to twirl her. 

“I know, look at this thing!” Ginny laughed, as she twirled. 

Ginny, Blip and Evelyn began making their way over to their table, Ginny couldn’t help looking over her shoulder back at Mike and Rachel. Rachel had her back to Ginny’s view but she locked eyes with Mike, he smiled a reassuring smile but it didn’t help the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe it was the way Rachel looked at Mike with her standing right there that really knitted into her memory or maybe it was the way he longingly looked at Rachel. 

She sat down taking the place card into her hand, tracing her fingers over the embroidered ‘Ginny Baker’. As she looked up she noticed Mike was making his way over to the table. He looked at her with a serious expression, as he sat down beside her, he bent down bringing his lips to her ear, “you okay?” he whispered. 

“Yeah,” she sighed at his closeness. Fuck, she wasn’t okay. 

The rest of the function went without any complications, Ginny presented the award to a beautiful woman who’d donated 3 million to the Make A Wish, everyone clapped and Ginny couldn’t swallow the lump in her throat watching Rachel stare over at Mike as he got up to applaud. 

____

When they’d finally arrived home Ginny was jazzed up enough to actually say something. She wouldn’t be the reason Mike didn’t chase after Rachel, no matter how much she wanted to punch Rachel Patrick in the stomach. Ginny had noticed he’d been unusually quiet on the way home, deep in thought and she hated that she couldn’t read him. No matter how much it hurt her, he deserved the opportunity. 

“Rachel still loves you, you know,” Ginny said as she took off her shoes at the front door, keeping her eyes looking at the ground. 

Mike turned back to her surprised “What?” 

“She still loves you Mike,” She said as she began unzipping the side of her dress, making her way up the staircase. 

“What?” he asked, following her up the stairs. 

“You should call her,” ignoring him,

“Call her? What are you talking about,” he said coming into her room behind her, as she started bringing her arms out of the dress and moving it over her hips. It’d been a long night. 

“You should Mike, don’t let this be the reason you don’t chase after her.” She said motioning with her eyes to her stomach as the dress pooled at her feet. 

“It’s not the reason,” he sighed, sitting down on her bed, 

Ginny huffed as pulled the doors to her closet open to grab her sweats, “Mike, you love her, I can see it, call her and tell her.” 

“I’m not going to.” 

“Mike, I saw the way you looked at each other,” 

He got up, making his way over to the closet to help her find whatever the hell she was looking for. “I wasn’t looking at her,” he began, using the draws as a distraction from looking at her half naked body. 

She straightened up beside him, letting him take over, “Mike, I’m not blind, she loves you. Please call her.” 

“Why?” he asked, straightening up next to her, handing over an oversized shirt that had a sneaky resemblance to one of his own. 

“Why what?” Snapping as Ginny tugged off her strapless bra, she was now standing in front of him in only a pair of black underwear moving around harshly to bring her arms into the shirt he’d handed her. 

“Ginny stop.” Mike chuckled as he brought his hands to her shoulders, she hadn’t looked at him the entire conversation, she let out a breath of air as she brought her glassy eyes up to his slowly.

The humour at this conversation left him immediately, “What’s going on?”

“I just think you should call her,” she murmured, blinking away any liquid. She’d be lying if her head didn’t go back to that day in the kitchen, would he have got Rachel off like that too with the go-ahead from her, would he have brought her home tonight?

Mike took a deep breath, taking his hands off of her shoulders. “Ginny, I don’t want to call her.” 

Ginny brought the shirt over her head letting the fabric fall down to her thighs, “Why not, you love her, get it over and done with” 

“Get what over and done with?” Mike provoked, watching her as she moved around the room to get a wipe from the dresser. 

“This Mike, put me out of my goddamn misery,” Ginny snapped as she motioning between them, one hand wiping at her face roughly. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked standing to take off his jacket,

“I’m talking about this, don’t use this as an excuse,” she said again motioning down to her stomach and him. 

“It’s not an excuse,” 

“Well why aren’t you chasing her or calling her,” she snapped. 

“Because I don’t want her,”

“God, you idiot she still loves you, you still have a chance there Mike.” 

“Fuck Ginny, we were talking about you.” 

Her breath caught, “what?” 

Mike huffed, looking back up at her, “We were talking about you. So you don’t get to tell me to call her, that I still love her when all I do is talk about you.” 

He watched as his words sank in, she looked down at her hands and back up at him, her expression unreadable. 

“Yeah I am an idiot, it's your turn, tell me what the hell this is,” Mike motioning between them as he moved across the room towards her. 

“I don’t know what this is,” She said looking down at her hands again. 

They stayed in silence, she hadn’t met his eyes and the tension was frustrating. The fact she wouldn’t tell him what she was thinking was frustrating, the need to know what the hell was happening between them was frustrating but what was more satisfying than anything was the fact that he’d gotten her so worked up that she’d finally cracked. 

“So, this was the mood swings Blip was talking about,” Mike finally said, trying to break the tension. 

The smirk grew across her lips travelling right up to her eyes. “He said I’d get mood swings?” 

“Yep, and you’d hate smells,” he laughed shrugging away at his suit jacket. 

“Oh yeah, I hate the smell of your chicken,” she grimaced at the memory

He ignored the hit to his cooking, considering a few months ago she was lapping up his chicken, “So jealousy is a mood swing of yours,” Mike grinned as he started to unbutton his shirt. 

“I wouldn’t say I was jealous, just hesitant,” 

Undoing the buttons to his dress shirt, Mike began to tug his shirt off revealing the hard planes of his chest and abdomen, Ginny’s breath hitched as she looked down his body. 

Mike raised his eyebrows at her smug smile playing on his lips, “Is that what we’re going with?” 

He began making his way out of the room, making a beeline for his room. Ginny followed, “yeah that’s exactly what we’re going with, it’s the truth.” 

“Oh really?” he asked challenging her, 

Ginny made her way over to his bed sitting down cross legged, while Mike tugged at his zipper to pull his suit pants down over his thighs. Mike looked up, surprised to see a heated expression, her pupils were blown as she licked her bottom lip. 

Ginny let out a breath as she looked away from him, “Yeah.”

“So the brush up at the thing tonight was nothing?” 

“That got you going?” she asked surprised. 

“Baker, just looking at you get’s me going,” he said honestly, looking over at her with apprehension, he’d said too much.

“Oh really?” 

“Don’t get too much of a big head Baker, half the team would agree,” he tried to save, and fuck was she mesmerising as she batted her eyelashes at him. 

“Mhm,” 

Mike willed his eyes away from her. He wasn’t going to do this with her, no matter how badly his body wanted it. The other part of him, the part in his chest that had become to invested in whatever was between him wanted more, that part of him wanted to unravel her. 

“Baker, you know I’m not going anywhere right?” 

Mike moved closer to her, his hand coming to caress her cheek. Ginny looked up at him, leaning into his palm. Mike held her gaze as the heaviness of his words sank in. 

“I know, you're kinda stuck with me now.”

“It’s not about that Gin.” 

Mike took a gulp, he was about to lay out his cards, “I mean I was wrapped around your finger well before all of this.” 

A sluggish grin spread across her face, all dimples and knowing. Mike continued, “I mean I wasn’t poster on the wall, rookie card wrapped.” 

“Oh you definitely were Lawson, I had you wrecked and you knew it.” 

“Is that so?” 

“The minute you started hitting bombs before Boardners, I knew it.” 

The cockiness of this woman, “Well, when another ball player male or female rips you about how shit your at bat is, you bet your fine little ass I’m going to show off.”

“Is that the story we’re going with?” Ginny echoed. 

Mike had let his hand drop from her face, leaning down to be eye level with her. His face was close to hers, if she wanted to play this game, he was better at it. 

“Oh definitely,” Mike breathed against her lips. 

His eyes flickered up to her eyes and down to her lips and back up again. She watched him darting her tongue out to wet her lower lip. “Or was it the prettiest ball player I’d ever seen?” Mike prodded, leaning in a touch closer to her lips.

“What happened to Leo?” 

“I'd still say his eyes were pretty… but you're definitely prettier,” 

He looked down at her stomach and back up again at her face, Ginny leaned in closing the distance between them. Her lips lightly brushed against his, Mike stayed still, bracing his hands on either side of her thighs on the bed. He didn’t move, much like each time they crossed this line, he let her initiate what she was comfortable with. 

Ginny pulled back slightly, threading her fingers through the soft hair that lined his jaw and cheeks. “I better go to bed.” 

“Yeah,” 

Mike didn’t move. She closed the distance again, brushing her lips against his softly. Her nose rubbing against his, he mirrored her movements parting his lips against hers. Mike leant down, lowering to his knees so he was placed between her thighs. Light fingers caressed her warm skin as the kiss deepened. 

God, he enjoyed kissing her. 

She pulled back again, letting out a soft groan. “I really should go to bed.” 

He knocked his head against her shoulder, “You’re killing me here Baker.” 

“I know.” 

When he looked back up at her, she had a big smirk on her face. He laughed, pulling back to straighten up. “Goodnight Ginny.” 

“Goodnight.” 

The grin didn’t leave her face as she exited his bedroom, as she made her way down the hall. She could feel Mike’s gaze as she made her way down the hall to her bedroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess what Ginny and Mike are having?!

_ Girl, you know I want your love _

_ Your love was handmade for somebody like me _

_ Come on now, follow my lead - Ed Sheeran.  _

 

Mike woke to the sound of his shower running. Swinging his legs over the bed he took in the time displayed, five in the morning what the hell was she doing awake at five in the morning. Groaning he made his way into the bathroom. He probably should have knocked but considering she was using his shower instead of her own he had the upper hand here. 

 

And then his eyes caught her mid motion as she moved the soapy lather across her body and he thanked every god there was that he hadn’t gotten frosted glass. She was a mesmerising sight, her long lean legs, her impeccable breasts, her ass and jesus that stomach housing what they’d created together. A sense of pride bubbled in his chest along with the arousal that made its presence known. 

 

She caught him at the threshold, “Jesus! You scared the shit out of me.” 

 

Her hand coming up to her chest but otherwise continuing what she was doing as if his gaze didn’t bother her. He smirked as he moved into the bathroom grabbing at his toothbrush. 

 

“Uh! Don’t you dare turn on that water, the pressure is perfect!” She screeched.

 

He turned to her still smiling, “That explains why your using my shower.” 

 

“Oh right, sorry. Did I wake you?” She was rinsing her hair now, not an ounce of remorse in her voice. The soap suds ran down her body. Mike cleared his throat, looking away but his dick had other plans.

 

“Obviously, what’s got you up at five in the morning?” 

 

She huffed as she turned off the water, “Beside the boxer in my stomach? Hand me a towel.” 

 

And he handed it to her desperately trying to train his eyes on her face, if she wasn't preoccupied she would have noticed the tent, instead of every other part of her on display. She smirked, “Pervy,” 

 

“You walked into my yard Rookie, I’m allowed to glance.” 

 

“Glance all you want,” Ginny said as she tucked the towel around her body. She moved to the basin, grabbing her own toothbrush.

 

“How long have you been using my bathroom?” Dubious expression on his face.

 

She furrowed her eyebrows at his reflection in the mirror, “You didn’t notice?” 

 

“I wish I had.” 

 

“A good few weeks, the pressure is way better.” 

 

He hummed at that, how many opportunities had he missed he wondered. She continued her routine, brushing her teeth as if the close proximity didn’t bother her. Mike shrugged his shoulders at her through the mirror and went along with his business stripping off his sweats to get in the shower too. 

 

He smirked at her concentration, her trained eye kept on her own reflection.

 

“What’s the plans for today, hm?” He asked over the running water. 

 

Spitting, “Scan appointment remember?” 

 

Of course, “Yeah, at 3?” 

 

“Yep, are you finally going to let me find out what we’re having?” 

 

“Come on Gin, don’t you want it to be a surprise?” 

 

“Mike, I’ve had enough surprises,” She laughed as she ran her hand over her covered stomach. 

 

“But this is a fun surprise!” He bellowed over the running water, catching her eyes. 

 

He rinsed the soap off of his body, watching her move around the bathroom. 

 

She pouted at him, “What if they tell me and I won't tell you?” 

 

“Ginny, you won’t be able to help yourself.” 

 

“Honestly, I won’t say a thing!” Her best innocent smile she could muster on full display and if Mike didn’t know her any better he would have fallen for it. 

 

He turned off the water as she handed him a towel, “Nope, What’s that?” 

 

“Just some crap that’s suppose to stop stretch marks and itch.” She huffed as she moved the lotion over her body, removing the towel to run it over her stomach. When had she put on underwear Mike wondered. 

 

“Still itchy?” 

 

“Yeah, this little sucker won’t let up.” Ginny huffed again, rubbing circles into the top of her chest that was now covered. 

 

Mike moved forward taking the lotion out of her hand, squeezing some into his own hands and caressing her stomach. “You just wanted to touch me,” 

 

“You have no idea.” He smirked as he massaged it into her warm skin. 

 

They stayed like that for a beat longer before she looked away from him, her facial expression cloudy. Mike dropped his hands from her body as she made her way out of the bathroom. 

 

___ 

 

When Mike finally made his way into the kitchen Ginny perched on a stool at the kitchen island eating what looked to be the same goo as a few weeks ago. Phone resting between her shoulder and ear, shovelling in another mouthful she mouthed, “Amelia.” 

 

Mike nodded, wasn’t it too early for Amelia to be calling. 

 

He moved to make his own breakfast. 

 

“Ugh, Mike’s not going to want to do that, and I sure as hell don’t want to do that.” She ranted between swallowing. Ginny moved to put Amelia on loudspeaker. 

 

“Your on loudspeaker, Mike’s here.” 

 

“Good. Lawson tell Ginny you want to do a commentary piece with her.”

 

“Why would I want to do a commentary piece with her?” Mike asked with a playful tone.  

 

“Because she’s pregnant with your kid,” Amelia huffed. 

 

“But I’m still a ballplayer Amelia, I don’t do specials.” Ginny huffed. 

 

“Ginny, you need to keep the momentum behind you to get back next season.” Amelia reminded her. 

 

“Ginsanity will be fine Amelia, it’ll still be there without the interview.” 

 

“They aren’t going to put her back to the minors.” finalisation in his tone. 

 

“Honestly, this is good publicity. You’ll be talking about baseball anyway.” Amelia explained through the phone. 

 

“Are we talking about the post game special I’m on next week?” Mike asked dumbly. 

 

“Yes, they asked if Ginny would be interested.” Amelia’s voice ringing across the kitchen. 

 

“But that’s not my thing.” 

 

“But America want to know what you have to say.” 

 

“Maybe we should do it?” Mike asked.

 

“Traitor,” Ginny mouthed over her food at Mike, “See! Mike doesn’t care.” Amelia bellowed through the phone. 

 

Ginny was exhausted of this conversation, “Yeah, but I suck at interviews we all know that.” 

 

“And so does Mike.” Amelia laughed through the phone, “It’ll work.” 

 

“I’ll think about it, I’ll call you with an answer tonight,” Ginny huffed as she hung up before Amelia could get another word in. 

 

Ginny looked up at him across the island, “You were suppose to be on my side, traitor.” 

 

Mike took a chunk out of his food, mouthful replied, “I am on your side, this’ll be fun!” 

 

Ginny reached over taking a piece of his avocado toast, “It’ll be a disaster, we both know they’ll talk about this.” She moved her hand to touch her stomach. She’d gotten away with not doing any interviews that involved her pregnancy. 

 

“Think about it Gin, we’re having a baby, we’ll clear up the crap the media keep making up.” 

 

She huffed as she finished off her breakfast, making her way around the island to clean her dish, “I guess…” 

 

“Mhm,” He agreed. 

 

“You coming to Evelyn and Blip’s?” She changed the subject, she really didn’t want the world knowing that a moment of weakness between them had resulted in an unexpected pregnancy, early finishing to her season and an unwelcome debate on when-had-they and if-they. 

 

“Yeah, lunch?” Subconsciously raising his hand to touch her stomach, it had gotten so big. 

 

“Yeah…” Her eyes fixed on his touch. “feel that?” 

 

“Yeah,” Mike cooed as he moved his hand a little more to feel the fluttering through her skin. She reached for the hem of her shirt, moving his hand under towards her lower stomach, “I think that’s it's hand.” 

 

Ginny’s eyes watched his facial expression change, a full smile as he brought two hands to encase her stomach, “Definitely a pitcher, our kid has an excellent swing.” She laughed, looking away from Mike’s face because if she kept looking she was going tell him she was stupidly in love. 

 

____ 

 

Going to the Sanders was an ordeal in itself, their trained eye on every single interaction between them, they would sort through and fine pick each stolen moment. Blip knew Mike’s deep dark and messy feelings towards Ginny and if blip knew, Evelyn definitely knew. 

 

“Have you told her yet?” Blip prodded. 

 

They were enjoying a beer out on the deck, Mike watched as Ginny laughed at something Evelyn had said. They were deep in conversation as Ginny watched Evelyn cut up vegetables, Ginny held up a carrot completely relaxed and took a bite. 

 

He let out a held breath, “No. We’re not making it anymore complicated than it needs to be.” 

 

“Mike, you're not about to tell me that it’s not already complicated. She got upset about you and Rachel” Blip laughed as he took a sip of his beer. “It’s already complicated.” 

 

Mike sighed, “I asked her what was going on and she didn’t know.”

 

“Man, she’s pregnant with your kid, she’s living with you, kissing you, something is going on.” 

 

Mike looked over to Blip, of course he knew they kissed - Ginny must have told Evelyn which made him wonder what else she’d told Evelyn. “What did she tell Evelyn?” 

 

Blip motioned his lips were sealed, laughing again as he took another sip of his beer. 

 

“None of my business, all I’m saying is you better sort your shit out before this kid comes along.” 

 

“Talking about the kid, did you and Ev find out what you were having before the twins came along?” 

 

“Yeah! I couldn’t not know!” 

 

As Blip replied Evelyn and Ginny caught the end of the conversation, “He hounded for weeks, I actually didn’t want to find out!” Evelyn exclaimed. 

 

“I don’t wanna find out either, but Baker over there want’s to know.” 

 

Ginny smirked, “I will win this Old Man.” 

 

Mike motioned down to his watch, “Alright, you’ve got three hours to convince me.” 

 

Evelyn laughed, “Oh I’m sure she can convince you,” her tongue between her teeth in a mischievous way. Ginny grinned as she pushed Evelyn in the shoulder. They took their seats across from them. 

 

“Gutter mind,” she murmured, leaning over to grab a biscuit and cheese but the red on the apple of her cheeks made him smile. 

 

Lunch went by smoothly, they talked about the impending birth of their child, the names they’d come up with and naturally baseball. Whenever they spoke about baseball, he always noticed the expression on Ginny’s face, she masked her hurt and longing well but never from him. Locking eyes with her he made a habit of reinforcing that he missed catching her fastballs. 

 

____ 

 

When they left for the doctor's office, he knew the conversation was coming. 

 

“Come on Mike, I’ll do anything, let me find out.” 

 

“Nuh-uh Baker, you get to do all the fun stuff like carry the kid, let it be a surprise!” 

 

“But don’t you wanna know if we’re having a girl or boy? Don’t you wanna stop calling it an ‘it’?” She pouted, “Don’t make me beg.” 

 

“Well I do enjoy when you beg,” he raised his eyebrows suggestively at her across the car. 

 

“Dirty,” She said as she smirked back at him. “But you're changing the subject, come-on?” 

 

He reached over touching her knee, “Just moving the conversation to a new level, I mean if you want to beg...” Mike trailed off as she looked down to where his hand encased her knee, he rubbed a few circles into the skin there, moving it up to the inside of her thigh. She’d worn shorts today and a loose racerback singlet.

 

“If you keep doing that you’re going to need to finish the job,” Ginny warned. Completely lost in the feel of fingers caressing her thigh, moving higher and Mike’s pants suddenly got a little too tight. 

 

“Hm, the begging,” Mike smirked at her. 

 

Ginny shook her head in reply placing her hand on his and moving it back to her knee, “Honestly, if you don’t want to know we won’t find out.” Her voice suddenly husky.

 

“Come on, Baker.” 

 

There it was again, ‘Baker’, he was trying to put himself back into check when they got too close to something. She looked over him and pouted again. 

 

“Please?” 

 

“Okay you ready for this?” Mike asked, as they pulled into the carpark. 

 

“Oh definitely,” She motioned, water bottle in hand. “I’m literally about to pee myself, so all things considering, I should get to know what we’re having.” 

 

Mike laughed, “Alright, I’ll make you a deal, you find out but you're not allowed to tell anyone.” 

 

Her eyes lit up, “Really?” 

 

“Yeah.” Mike huffed. 

 

“Ha!” She exclaimed as she leant down to grab her bag, getting out of the car. 

 

They made their way into the office, they’d been in this office a few times since she’d fallen pregnant, he remembered the anxiety the first time they’d stepped into this office, the confirmation that they were expecting a bundle of what should have been joy but the dread he’d felt that day. He remembered holding her as she cried leaving that office the first time. This time, completely different, the excitement of entering this office now bubbled in his throat. 

 

He watched as she checked herself in with the receptionist, taking a seat next to him. 

 

“What do you think of Wolf?” Mike asked as he flipped through the baby name book he’d picked up. 

 

“Wolf?” She laughed, 

 

“Yeah, strong, one of a kind?” 

 

“We’re not naming our kid after an animal and what if it’s a girl?” 

 

“Lion if it’s a girl?” Mike exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing. 

 

“Absolutely not, I was thinking something a little more normal…” 

 

“Like what?” Mike asked. 

 

Just as Mike asked that the receptionist called out Baker, motioning for them to follow her into the suite. “To be continued,” Ginny smiled as Mike followed her into the room. 

 

Moving into the room they were greeted by their usual doctor, a petite lady in a lab coat, “So how’s everything going?”

 

“Really great, I feel great, except for the unwanted stretch mark that has appeared on my ass.” Ginny remarked. Mike rolled his eyes at her. “The lotion should be help with that, have you calmed down on the exercise?” The doctor asked. 

 

Mike laughed. “Sort of,” Ginny answered, as Mike cut her off, “If you call doing five miles on the treadmill a day and pitching to me in the backyard calming down.” 

 

Ginny look at Mike with a stone face, “Traitor.” 

 

“That should be fine, but no heavy lifting, Ginny.” The doctor said in a serious tone. “No heavy lifting,” Ginny confirmed as she laid back on exam table, lifting her shirt up. Mike moved to her side, looking over at the screen. 

 

The doctor squeezed gel onto the probe, “Alright, the gel will be cold. Have you finally convinced Mike to find out what your having?” 

 

“Yep, but you have to whisper it to me.” Huge smile across Ginny's face, as the probe moved over her stomach. The doctor smiled over at Mike, readjusting the probe against her uncovered stomach, “And how’re you dealing with everything Mike?” 

 

His eyes fixed on the screen, “Beside the excessive eating and mood swings, really good.” 

 

“Ah, baby looks good, healthy, measuring perfectly.” The doctor moved the probe lower on her pelvis, as she clicked on the keyboard connected. “Looks like baby is moving towards the birth canal, which is good.”

 

Mike looked down at Ginny with her big grin, eyes caught on hers. 

 

“Alright, doc what are we having?” Mike huffed out, pretend annoyance in his tone. 

 

Ginny’s mouth wide, pointing her finger at him, “I knew you’d want to know!”  

 

“Well if you know, I’ve gotta know!” Mike smirked. 

 

“Are you guys sure?” The doctor asked. 

 

“Tell us Doc” 

 

“Ginny, Mike, you're having a little boy.” 

 

It sunk in for about ten seconds before Mike exclaimed, “We’re having a boy!” motioning down at her stomach, the excitement radiating off of him. “We’re having a boy!”

 

She smiled up at him, running her hands across her stomach, “We’re having a boy!”  

 

“Holy crap Gin, we’re having a boy!” Mike repeated, watching as she wiped the gel off of her abdomen. 

 

“Wow,” 

 

“Alright, I’ll just get these printed off for you and I’ll see you in four weeks.” 

 

Mike and Ginny followed her down to the reception area, huge smiles on display. 

 

“Thanks so much,” Ginny said as she took the pictures off of the receptionist. 

 

“Gin we’re having a boy,” Mike nuzzled into her shoulder, taking in her scent memorising that she’d used her strawberry body wash on the day they found out what they were having. 

 

“I know,” 

 

“Now we’ve gotta come up with a name,” Mike smiled as he got into the car, turning on the ignition as he looked at the photos she’d handed to him. “Admit it, I was right, this is a good thing!” Ginny said as she rubbed her stomach, leaning across the middle console to his side to look at the photos with him. 

 

“You were right, shit, we’re having a boy!” 

 

“Would you have been this excited if we were having a girl?” Ginny’s breath faltered at the realisation of how close they were. 

 

Mike looked down at her lips and back up to her eyes, wetting his bottom lip. 

 

“Yeah,” He murmured completely tranced by the close proximity of her breath against his lips. 

 

She hummed at his response, bringing her bottom lip between her teeth but continuing to stare at him and Mike leaned in because this moment, this right here. This is what happiness felt like, Mike concluded, this is what fireworks felt like. 

 

Mike leaned in brushing his lips across hers, as she brought her hand up to his temple. The slight touch of his beard grazing the skin around her lips, she moved forward, leaning into the touch of his mouth against hers, parting her lips she tentatively ran her tongue against his, He brought his hand up to her jaw tilting her head as he kissed her, really kissed her. 

 

She pulled back, face flushed “Sorry. Got caught in the moment.” 

 

He kept watching her, “Yeah, we could go with that.” 

 

She turned away, busying her hands with the photographs. Mike hummed averting his attention to the car. The drive home was silent before Mike finally spoke, the tension was palpable and frustrating, “Gin, we need to talk about this.” 

 

She ignored him as she got out of the car, grabbing her keys and wallet.

 

“Come-on Gin, we need to talk about it.” 

 

“Talk about what,” Ginny gushed, as she fumbled with the keys to open up the lock. 

 

“What happened,” Mike murmured behind her, following her into the house. 

 

“Nothing, we kissed.” 

 

Mike continued following her as she made her way to the fridge, opening it up, she grabbed a water. 

 

“We kissed, we’ve kissed a few times, we’ve done a lot more too Ginny.” 

 

She took a big mouthful, “I know and it doesn’t change anything.” 

 

“It makes me think you like kissing me,” Mike laughed at her frustration. 

 

Mike bottled any emotion that he felt in the car deep in his chest. Kissing her was a wish and a curse, everything about her was a double edged sword. Two steps forward and three steps back. Each time he felt like they’d crossed the line, curved it even, she pulled back and he would just have to be okay with that. 

 

_____ 

 

She smirked over at Mike as the makeup artist added some concealer under his eyes, “You look pretty.” 

 

Ginny couldn’t work out how Amelia had convinced her to go through with this, it was one thing for everyone to know she was pregnant, a complete other for her to be on national TV broadcasting it. Sitting there with a microphone box attached to her hip, a tiny piece of technology catching every single word she said was nerve wracking. 

 

Mike must have caught onto her unease because he got up and circled around her chair, “Relax, it’ll be fine.” She leaned into the palm that he’d placed against her face, “I’m nervous.” 

 

“Nothing to be nervous about, I’ll be right there.” 

 

Her eyes caught up to his, he gave her the same look of determination. The same look that he’d thrown at her so many times on the mound mid game when she thought she was losing her nerve. Incredibly, the same look that had made her fall in love with him in the first place, the comfort and unwavering support of one stupid look. 

 

Catching their attention, the technical assistant motioned for them to take their seats at the casting table. 

 

“You ready Rook?” 

 

Mike hadn’t called her Rook in a long time, the familiarity made her feel centered, comfortable. “Yep.” 

 

The cameraman counted down in front of them, motioning with his fingers the green light lit. 

 

“We have an interesting special tonight, Mike Lawson and Ginny Baker, welcome.” The commentated motioned to both of them. 

 

“Hey,” they both said in unison. 

 

“So interesting news surfaced a few months ago, pitcher and catcher having a baby together. Can I ask how long you guys have been together?” 

 

Mike turned to Ginny’s alarmed expression, answering quickly, “We’re here to talk Baseball aren’t we?” 

 

“Yeah but I gotta ask, how did all of this come to be?” the news anchor pushed. 

 

Ginny huffed outrightly, “Let me ask you this, if I was a male would you be bringing this up or would we be talking about baseball?” 

 

The anchor laughed, and Mike turned to her impressed. Ginny continued, “I mean, that’s what we’re here for isn’t it? To talk about baseball. Not what's going on between Mike and I - which by the way, is obvious.” 

 

The news anchor reeled back coughing into his hand, as Mike tossed a smug expression at him. “What she said.” 

 

“You heard the woman, let's talk baseball.” The news anchor laughed, swivelling his chair around to face them properly, “We’ve got a new pitcher for the Padres, Greyson with Ginny’s early finish to this season, how is he fitting in?” 

 

Mike answered quickly, “Greyson is a very good pitcher, a bit harder to read…” he turned a pointed look at Ginny, “...but has a strong throw, reads the plays well. Yeah, he's fitting in good.” 

 

The anchor turned to Ginny, “Have you had a chance to meet with him, see him pitch?” 

 

“Yeah, I actually played against Greyson back in the minors, he’s an excellent pitcher. Works extremely hard, he's a great addition to the team.” 

 

“Are you at all concerned he’ll take your spot?” and that was blindsided, Ginny’s eyes narrowed but before she could throw a smart-ass remark back Mike jumped in. “Greyson’s great and we really hope we don’t have to send him back down, we’ll see what happens post-season.” 

 

The anchor ignored Mike’s comment giving Ginny a pointed look, “And your thoughts?” 

 

Ginnys eyes centered on the arrogant idiot, “He's a good player, Mike covered it well - he is a team player. Excellent addition to the Padres.” 

 

“And his actually able to play, dedicated, the game comes first.” Below the belt, Mike saw red looking around the room at the assistants and then back at the commentator, “Do you treat all your guests like this or just women?” 

 

He reeled back, “I didn’t mean it like that,” 

 

“Yeah you did, you're implying that Baker having a baby will impact her as a player…” 

 

Ginny jumped in cutting him off, “Sorry, is pregnancy a death sentence?” 

 

Mike finished off her sentence, “Baker’s the hardest worker in the team, she works twice as hard as half of those players. She’s the real deal. So I’d say you owe her an apology” 

 

The commentator turned back surprised, “I really didn’t mean any disrespect.” 

 

“Thing is you did disrespect me. You definitely wouldn’t have tried half the shit you pulled with my male counterpart.” And that was it, Ginny got up pulling at the microphone pinned to her button down. Her eyes dead panning on the man in front of her, “Congratulations, you’ve made an enemy of all female athletes.” 

 

And she turned and marched away mid broadcast, the tears stinging the back of her eyes. She had known this was a mistake, she felt like a joke, an easy punchline, the gimmick they all thought she was when she’d initially been called up. 

 

She was out the door and walking towards the parking lot when Mike caught up to her, “Hey.” 

 

She pulled away, rummaging through her handbag ignoring him. 

 

“Hey, come ‘ere” Mike pulled at her wrist. 

 

She tried to snatch her hand away but he held on tighter, tugging at her gently to look at him. “Come here,” he repeated. 

 

She succumbed, looking up into his eyes and let him pull her against his body. She rested her head against his chest as the tears free fell. He placed his hand against her head holding her to his chest. They stayed like that as he listened to her muffled sob. 

 

“I’m so mad…” she sniffled into his chest, “Bloody hormones, I’m mad not sad.” 

 

“I know, he was an idiot.” 

 

“He’s an ass… but he’s right.” she murmured against him. 

 

“Baker, you’ll be back.” 

 

“Will I?” 

 

He pulled back, looking at her in the eyes bringing his hand to her jaw he tilted her chin up. “None of that shit Baker, you're a ballplayer through and through.” He brought his thumb up to wipe away at a stray tear. “I mean it Gin, you’re a ballplayer.” 

 

The was no room in his tone for second thoughts or contemplation. She was a ballplayer... except she couldn’t help but think now she was a mother too. 

 

______ 

 

Mike caught her later that night staring at herself in the mirror of his ensuite, she’d just had a shower and glaring at her naked reflection in the mirror, moving around and staring at her stomach at all angles, he laughed as she turned around to have a proper look at her ass. 

 

“Baker, your ass is fine.” 

 

He heard her huff from where he was sitting on the bed, “Trust me Gin, it looks perfect.” 

 

She leaned into the bedroom, pointing a smile at him, “Perfect?” 

 

He smirked, “Trust me.” 

 

“Except you have to say that because you’re half the reason it’s getting bigger.” 

 

He got up off of the bed coming into the bathroom behind her, he turned her around so she was facing him. Looking at her seriously, “Do you trust me Baker?” 

 

“I do, but…” her voice trailed off when he leaned in, working his lips against her jaw, moving them down her throat to the smooth curve where her neck reached her collarbone. “Baker, you have the perfect ass.” He reasoned against her skin. 

 

The heat licked at her, “Go on,” she managed, Ginny’s fingers reaching into his hair, she arched her spine as he slowly moved his mouth to her taut nipple. “You're perfect.” He continued kissing directly over her heart, “You want the truth?” 

 

Her fingers stilled against his scalp, “Yeah.” 

 

“I’ve never been more attracted to someone than I am for you, Gin.” He caressed over her stomach, realising that she honestly couldn’t question it. He continued his fingers down her body, “You’re beautiful Baker, right here…” He leaned up and kissed her lips. 

 

“Mike, you don’t have to -” She tried to pull away as his lips connected to the vulnerable base of her throat and smirked into her skin at the quickening of her pulse, “And here…” He moved her back, out of the bathroom and towards his bed, bringing her up to lay against the pillows. 

 

Mike moved down her body, smoothing his tongue against the valley between her breasts, over her stomach and coming down to her bellybutton. Her voice coming out hoarse as he felt her swallow, “Mike, you don’t have to do -” 

 

“Baker, you don’t get it, do you?” He wedges himself between her legs, bringing her calves over his shoulders, kissing the protruding bump, “Every inch of you is perfect.” He swirled his tongue down the underside of her bump coming into contact with where she was already slick, hot and wet. He brushed his beard against her inner thighs, feeling her thighs quiver at his touch. He felt her pulse against him, he continued kissing her wet centre, tongue flicking gently, swirling gently.

 

He moved back, gently pulling at her calves to placing them back on the bed. He moved over her, his other hand under her chin tilting her head up slightly, “Gin, look at me.”  

 

She opened her eyes meeting his gaze, she fell deep in the same eyes that stared at her from 60 feet away. He didn’t need to say the words for her to know the message, waves crashed through her, panic button set on alert. Insight flicked against her brain. He pulled at his sweats, lowering them and kneeled between her quaking thighs. 

 

He held her eyes, moving down and making sure to keep any weight off of her. His palm lined her jaw while he ran his thumb across her bottom lip. “You’re perfect, Gin.” Mike lined himself up, eyes never leaving hers driving into her, her entire sensory system going haywire, her toes curled into the mattress. 

 

Mike set the pace, slow and deep. He stroked the need, building and centering in her core with each deep thrust. The warmth she felt in his gaze escalate to heat and that heat fused into fire, he watched her. His eyes caught on hers. She felt the control slip out of her grasp, this was nothing like how they’d slept together. 

 

He reared back, sensing her unease. He grabbed her wrists placing them above her head, he thrusted deep and slow. His eyes never left hers as she moved to break free of his grip, he brushed his lips lightly against hers. “Let me make you feel good,” Mike murmured against her lips. 

 

“It’s too... “ Her fear heightened, body tensing, she couldn’t think of the words. Both times they’d been intimate there had been humour in his eyes, this time there was too much… intimacy. Ginny felt raw.

 

“Ginny, trust me.” 

 

Her thigh trembled against him, she wrapped them around him. Mike had her, by every single slow, long leisured stroke. She clenched rhythmically around him, her thighs tightening. He continued slow, measured thrusts, her eyes rolling back she toyed on the brink but Mike’s eyes didn’t leave hers. Each time he hit that sweet spot, gently and slow, deliberate and tortuous. 

 

“God, you're so beautiful.” He thrusted harder and deeper.

Insight hit her like a truck, each time he’d look at her from the mound. The mesmerised gaze she caught within the depths of his eyes when he touched their baby. The adoration she noticed when they spoke about their future. Somewhere along the way pitching to him she’d handed Mike a lot more than her body. The insight hit her like a blunt force, Mike leaned in against her lips. “Gin, trust me.” 

 

He snaked his arm around the middle of her back bringing her body plush against his, moving her thigh outwards and thrusted into her deep and everything in her quivered and pulsed, she brought him into the ocean with her, white waves. 

  
“I love you.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, i'm so anxious on how this ended - it took me weeks to work out how I was going to get them to take the plunge.


End file.
